Dustin L. Kendall – Specialist, United States Army

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NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense

No. 044-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2006

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Specialist Dustin L. Kendall, 21, of Conway, Arkansas, died in Baqubah, Iraq on January 15, 2006, when his HMMVW accidentally struck an M1A2 Abrams tank and rolled over.  Kendall was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado.

The incident is under investigation.

For further information related to this release, contact Army Public Affairs at (703) 692-2000.

A soldier from Arkansas is among the latest casualties in Iraq in the war on terror.

A spokesman for Representative Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, confirms Army Specialist Dustin L. Kendall, 21, of Conway, Arkansas, was killed Sunday in a non-combat related accident. Kendall`s humvee struck an Abrams tank and rolled over, according to a statement by the Pentagon. The accident happened in Baqubah.

Initial reports from the Department of Defense identified Kendall as being from Conway, Missouri.

Kendall was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado.

Specialist Kendall will be buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on 25 January 2006.

‘Happy-Go-Lucky Guy' Buried at Arlington
Arkansas Soldier Killed in Iraq In Vehicle Accident
By Leef Smith
Courtesy of Washington Post
Thursday, January 26, 2006

Army Specialist Dustin Kendall considered a career designing golf courses. It might have been his vocation.

But after two years in the Army Reserve, the 21-year-old signed up for active duty.

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Penny Kendall, with Brig. Gen. Robert Woods Jr., at the burial service for her son, Army Specialist Dustin Kendall, 
the 221st person killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom to be buried at ArlingtonNational Cemetery

Kendall was deployed to Iraq in November. He was killed January 15, 2006, when his Humvee accidentally struck an Abrams tank in Baqubah and rolled over.

Kendall, of Conway, Arknasas, was remembered yesterday by friends and family who gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to honor a young man known for his caring personality and charm.

“He really seemed to have his head on straight for someone his age,” David McRoberts, who was Kendall's medic at the Army National Guard C Company, 489th, in Conway, Arkansas, wrote in an e-mail. “I have to say that we, as the world, have lost someone that could have positively affected a lot of lives with his personality alone.”

High winds whipped leaves across the field of headstones at Arlington and muffled the bugler's graveside tribute. Mourners braced against the cold, their coats flapping in the wind as flags were presented to Kendall's mother, Penny Kendall, and sister, Courtney Steed.

Kendall was assigned to the Army's 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colorado.

According to news reports, Kendall was the son of missionaries and grew up in a variety of places. Friends said his family moved to Bryant, Arkansas, in 2002. His parents moved to Europe last year to carry on their missionary work, but Kendall stayed in Bryant to continue classes at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

On Sunday, several of Kendall's family members posted a message to friends in an online guestbook for mourners.

“To those who have known Dustin, you would surely echo our love for the life he lived and portrayed,” read the posting, signed by Dane, Linda and Nathan Kendall, of Edmonds, Wash. “I know the true devotion, integrity, and honor Dustin had toward God, his job and his friends and family. I know this because these things were gifted to us by our dad, and in turn were past on to our children . . . Dustin showed, lived and gave the same in everything he did. We will miss Dustin. Our prayers are for the healing and closure to this difficult time.”

Colleagues who had worked with Kendall at the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Bryant said he was a favorite of regular customers, whom he wooed with his personality and smile.

“He was very outgoing,” co-worker Amanda Ballew told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “He was just a happy-go-lucky guy.”

McRoberts wrote that he hadn't known Kendall long but considered him a “great friend.”

“He really wanted to go into active duty . . . to help prepare him for a better civilian career,” McRoberts wrote. “He knew that with a military background and training, that would put him above others who might be applying for certain positions on down the road. I have no doubt in my mind that Dustin would have [succeeded] in anything he chose to do.”

McRoberts said Kendall had a way of making him feel good about himself.

“I was somewhat older than Dustin, but in conversations with him, he made me feel important . . . you know, like I was special,” McRoberts wrote. “Sometimes I find myself getting down, but I never felt that way when he was around me. I mean, just now, I am finding myself in tears thinking of him. I miss him.”

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