Thomas Adam Moffitt – Specialist, United States Army

U.S. Department of Defense

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 982-10
October 26, 2010

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

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

Specialist Thomas A. Moffitt, 21, of Wichita, Kansas, died October 24, 2010, at Sarobi District, Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by insurgents with small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.


Services are scheduled for Saturday for a 21-year-old Wichita soldier who died in Afghanistan.

Army officials notified the family of Army Specialist Tom Moffitt that he died on Saturday. He was scheduled to come home on leave next month.

tamoffitt-photo-002

Services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Central Community Church in Wichita. Moffitt will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Moffitt was a gunner stationed in the Paktika Province, in the southeastern part of Afghanistan. He was assigned to the Delta Company of the 2nd Battalion in the 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division.

The Wichita Eagle reports that he is survived by his parents, John and Brenda Moffitt, and an older brother.


12 November 2010:

In Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., U.S. Army Specialist Thomas A. Moffitt, of Wichita, Kansas, will be laid to rest this afternoon, among thousands of other war dead identified by white markers that have come to symbolize the price of freedom and the sacrifice it entails.

Moffitt’s family will be in attendance, including his parents, John and Brenda Moffitt, of Wichita, and older brother, Jacob.

So, too, will grandparents Bob and Janice Diepenbrock, native Topekans now living near Alma in Wabaunsee County.

“You never want your kids to go before you do,” Bob Diepenbrock, 76, said earlier this week. “But he died doing what he wanted to do. That’s what we’re hanging onto.”

Moffitt, 21, was killed by gunfire October 24, 2010, when his unit came under attack by insurgents with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in a village in the Sarobi District of the Paktika Province in eastern Afghanistan. Army officials told Moffitt’s family the young soldier died instantly from his wounds.

He was an infantryman assigned to Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

A fellow soldier was wounded in the leg during the same round of gunfire, his grandfather said. And later that same day, he said, another U.S. soldier was killed in the same area.

Insurgents responsible for the gunfire also were taken out that day in fighting with U.S. troops, Diepenbrock said.

Moffitt, who turned 21 in September, enlisted in the Army on February 1, 2009 — 55 years to the day that his grandfather signed up for the Army in 1954.

“He wanted to be in infantry,” Diepenbrock said of his grandson. “He didn’t want to do anything else but be in the infantry.

“He went to South Korea, but he didn’t like that too much, because there was no action. He wanted to get in the Army and see action.”

After serving a year in South Korea, Moffitt returned stateside where he completed additional training at Fort Campbell, arriving there this past June. From there, his unit deployed to Afghanistan, and Diepenbrock said his grandson was ready to go.

“Pardon the expression, but he told me, ‘Pop, I’m gonna go over there and kick some ***,’ ” Diepenbrock said. “That’s what he wanted to do.”

Diepenbrock, who broke down in tears when talking about his grandson, said Moffitt enjoyed coming to his 80-acre farm near Alma to hunt and fish.

A memorial service was held Oct. 30 at Central Community Church in Wichita.

Diepenbrock said Moffitt’s immediate family is doing as well as can be expected.

“They trust in God,” he said. “They’re letting him guide them.”

Thomas A. Moffitt

An Army carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of Army Specialist Thomas A. Moffitt
upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Delaweare on Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

tamoffitt-gravesite-photo-november-2010-002

Members of the United Statesd Army honor guard finish transferring the flag-draped casket of
Army Specialist Thomas A. Moffitt, of Wichita, onto a caisson to be taken to his grave one-third of a mile away

tamoffitt-gravesite-photo-november-2010-001

Sunflowers, a temporary marker and an American flag rest on the grave at Arlington National Cemetery
of Army Specialist Thomas A. Moffitt

MOFFITT, THOMAS ADAM

  • SPC   US ARMY
  • AFGHANISTAN
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 09/20/1989
  • DATE OF DEATH: 10/24/2010
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 60  SITE 9676
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

tamoffitt-gravesite-photo-by-eileen-horan-february-2011-002 tamoffitt-gravesite-photo-by-eileen-horan-february-2011-003 tamoffitt-gravesite-photo-by-eileen-horan-february-2011-004 tamoffitt-gravesite-photo-by-eileen-horan-november-2010-001 tamoffitt-gravesite-photo-by-eileen-horan-november-2010-002

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