Delta Company solemnly bids its 'Big Daddy' goodbye

LITTLE ROCK — CAMP ADDER, Iraq - Pictures of Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Woodham flashed across a big screen at the front of the massive tent as the solemn soldiers of Delta Company slowly marched to their seats.

Maj. Kerry George of the 7th Sustainment Brigade quietly uncased his trumpet, preparing for his cue to blow taps. More than 350 people filled the seats and walkways.

Soldiers with Arkansas' 1st Squadron, 151 Cavalry Regiment, 39th Infantry Brigade, said goodbye to Woodham on Wednesday during a late-afternoon memorial service.

Woodham, 37, of Rogers became the first casualty of Arkansas' 39th Infantry Brigade's second deployment to Iraq when he collapsed in cardiac arrest while bending down to pick up a flashlight while working on a humvee Saturday night.

He is the 72nd member of the military with Arkansas roots to die in Iraq or Afghanistan and the 14th to die from noncombat causes.

Woodham was the motor sergeant for Delta Company, 1st Squadron, 151 Cavalry Regiment of Arkansas' 39th Infantry Brigade. He worked as a mechanic with Bravo Company, 39th Support Battalion, when the brigadedeployed to Baghdad with the 1st Cavalry Division from 2004-05.

"You don't think of coming to a combat zone and dying of an injury or illness," said 151 Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Parks of Searcy. "You just don't think about that."

Official Army documents listed the cause of Woodham's death as electrocution. An investigation, however, found no evidence of electrocution. The reports completed by the squadron listed Woodham's death as cardiac arrest, which was determined by doctors at the Camp Adder hospital.

Somewhere along the way, after the reports left the 39th, the cause of death was changed to electrocution. That erroneous information was used to notify Woodham's family. An investigation into how that informationwas changed is under way.

Known here as "Big Daddy," for the way he took care of troops, Woodham was known for his mild manner, unwavering loyalty and big heart. His intimidating size was countered by a demeanor most who knew him described as a teddy bear with "great compassion."

"He was a father figure to his younger soldiers," said Chief Warrant Officer Scott Turner, 151 motor pool chief. "He put the needs of his soldiers in front of his own."

Delta Company was given several days off after Woodham's death to deal with its grief. A combat-stress team visited with the mechanics working with Woodham the night of his death.

"He had a lot of friends in the company," said Capt. Daniel White of Monticello, Delta Company commander. "They're taking it hard, working through it together. Drinking a lot of coffee, doing a lot of talking."

Turner worked Tuesday to get Delta Company's mechanics settled back into work.

"A lot of people depend on what they do out there," Turner said. "So we have to soldier on."

On Tuesday, Staff Sgt. J.P. McVay of Pine Ridge returned to work on the humvee he and Woodham were dealing with the day Woodham died.

"That's no way for a 37-year-old man to go home," McVay said Tuesday, sitting in the humvee. He and Sgt. Chad Myers of Pine Bluff were finishing installing the injector pump McVay and Woodham had started on.

"It was real hard to come back to this bay and this truck," Mc-Vay said. "But that's the way he'd want it, for us to get back to it."

Myers looked at McVay from the humvee's passenger seat and added, "He'd say, 'Finish what you start.' He was as much about building you as a person as building you as a soldier."

Myers spoke at length about Woodham's love of his family, how he'd get "tickled" by conversations with his wife and how he planned to help his older son rebuild a car when he returned home.

"Be real supportive to his family," McVay said when asked what he'd like people to know. "Because they'll miss him as much as we do."

Woodham was known more for his smile and mild demeanor than for anything else.

"Everybody needs a friend who is somebody like him," Myers said. "You just can't find the right words. There's nothing you can say to explain the person that he was."

McVay looked at him with damp eyes.

"Thanks," he said. "You got me heartbroken again."

A complete list of Arkansas-related war deaths can be found at www2.arkansasonline.com/warcasualties/