3 Minnesota soldiers die in Iraq

02/23/2005

St. Cloud Times staff and news services

Three Minnesotans from the same rural Minnesota National Guard unit died Monday in Iraq, apparently when a bomb detonated as they aided an injured comrade.

It was the bloodiest day for Minnesota soldiers since the Vietnam War.

Family members and friends identified the men as Staff Sgt. David Day, 25, of St. Louis Park; 1st Lt. Jason Timmerman, 24, of Tracy, and Sgt. Jesse Lhotka, 24, of Alexandria, a St. Cloud State University graduate.

All were members of the Montevideo-based 151st Field Artillery. Two of them married in the fall, just before they left for New Jersey on their way to Iraq.

The Defense Department, citing policy on family notification, wouldn’t confirm the identities.

But the only casualty report for incidents Monday in Baghdad listed three soldiers killed and eight wounded when a roadside bomb detonated about 8 a.m. while an injured soldier was being cared for.

That soldier had been injured in a crash caused by a civilian vehicle, the Defense Department said.

Jesse Lhotka

“My husband was a hero. Before he died he saved two other men’s lives and I’m thankful for that,” Stacey Lhotka told KSTP-TV. She said she was glad he was saving lives, but “he was a hero before he left this house.”

Stacey Lhotka called her husband’s close friend, Weston Stradtman of St. Cloud, at about 5 p.m. Monday to tell him the news, Stradtman told the St. Cloud Times.

“You see people die on TV and you never expect it to be someone close to you, and all of a sudden it is,” Stradtman said.

Stradtman and Lhotka met as freshmen at Fergus Falls Community College. They sat next to each other in an accounting class, and ended up being roommates for three years.

“He’d go to school all day from 8 to 3 and he’d go to work from 4 to 9 and come home and study and go to bed,” Stradtman said. “He gave himself 100 percent.”

Arvilla Lhotka said her grandson and his wife were married in September.

Lhotka graduated in 1999 from Lac qui Parle Valley High School in Madison and in 2004 from St. Cloud State University with a degree in finance.

Superintendent Robert Munsterman told the West Central Tribune of Willmar that Lhotka had made a trip back to the school a couple of years ago to tell his former teachers he made sergeant.

“He was very proud of what he had accomplished with the National Guard,” Munsterman said.

Lhotka initially joined the Guard for the benefits, but lately he had been considering a full-time military career, Stradtman said.

Bill Hudson was Lhotka’s adviser at St. Cloud State. The finance professor said Lhotka’s death will deeply affect the small and closely knit finance department.

“He was a good student,” Hudson said. “It’s just a real tragedy. It’s really going to hit hard.”

Mike Halvorson, of St. Cloud, told the St. Cloud Times his friend “always made you laugh. He was never in a crabby mood, just a fun guy. ... He was just always happy and saw a bright side to everything.”

Lhotka enjoyed playing bingo and poker, Halvorson said.

“And I worked with him at nights, and every Thursday night he’d have someone tape ‘Friends’ for him. He loved watching that,” Halvorson said.

One of Stradtman’s favorite memories of Lhotka involved a really old house and a lot of paint.

During their sophomore year in college, Stradtman bought a house that was a “complete dump.”

So the friends closed the doors and windows, taped everything down and used a rented spray gun to spray white paint throughout the house.

“We worked until 11 at night,” Stradtman said. “We couldn’t breathe. All we could see of each other were our eyes because we were covered in paint. It was hilarious.”

Lhotka was selfless, Stradtman said.

“If the dishwasher broke, he was always the first guy to try to fix it even if he didn’t know how,” he said. “He’d take the shirt off his back to help you out.”

David Day

LaVonne Day, David Day’s grandmother, said the family was told that Day was checking on an overturned Humvee when a roadside bomb went off, killing him.

“This Humvee was on its side, tipped over, and he went over to see if anybody was hurt when it blew up,” she said. “He was going to help. That would be David, that would be exactly him.”

LaVonne Day said her grandson originally was from Morris. He worked as a police officer in St. Louis Park and married his high school sweetheart, Amy, just before he was deployed in the fall, she said.

“He bought her a brand new car and the diamonds, and he said ‘Now I want you to be taken care of.’ They were together for about four or five days” before he deployed, she said.

St. Louis Park Police Chief John D. Luke described Day as an honest, hardworking young man with an infectious personality.

Luke said Day was “the kind of kid that police chiefs dream of hiring.” He said he was a “can-do young man. ... His work ethic just overwhelmed us.”

Jason Timmerman

An American flag flew at half-staff at the Timmerman farm outside Marshall.

Timmerman’s father, Gary, answered a knock at his front door but declined to comment. About a half-dozen cars filled the driveway as friends streamed in to offer support.

Jason Timmerman was a high school math and computer teacher at Lake Benton Public School last year, Principal William Delaney said. Timmerman’s younger brother, Travis, also is serving in the Guard in Iraq, Rep. Marty Seifert of Marshall said.

The 151st Field Artillery, based in Montevideo, includes units from Marshall, Olivia, Morris, Ortonville, Appleton and Madison. About 330 members of the 151st mobilized in the fall for a deployment set to last 12 months to 18 months, Guard spokesman Maj. Kevin Olson said.

More than 2,000 Minnesota Guard soldiers and airmen are deployed in Iraq and seven other countries, Olson said.

Before Monday, 13 Minnesota service members had died in military operations in Iraq.