Soldier Was Determined to Serve

By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

David Nicholas Crombie had to fight hard -- and rely on a little luck -- to get into the Army.

He had wanted to enlist since he was a 12-year-old growing up in Yuma, Ariz. He painted his bedroom Army green. He wore Army-green clothes. He gave college a try, but he wanted to help people, and his heart had pointed him toward the Army.

The problem was, he had asthma.

"He wanted to be in the Army so badly that he didn't tell them," said his mother, Jen Laybourn of Winnemucca, Nev. "Then he had an asthma attack."

The Army tried to keep him out of basic training because of it, she said, but he pushed so hard that he finally persuaded officials to let him go through the course and train afterward as a medic.

"He almost didn't make it because he had asthma," Laybourn said. But asthmatics have good days and bad days, she said, and on the day of his physical, he had a good day. And then he was good to go.

He arrived in Iraq in May, and by the end of the month he had accomplished his goal of helping people, she said.

"The last call I got from him, I think it was Memorial Day weekend, he said, 'Mom, I saved an Iraqi soldier today -- it was so cool. I put my training to effect; I saved someone. I'm scared, but it's so great doing this.' "

A week later, on June 7, Pfc. Crombie, 19, died in Ramadi when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee. Another soldier, 1st Lt. Scott M. Love, 32, of Knoxville, Tenn., also was killed in the attack.

Crombie was buried yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery during a lull between rainstorms. His mother dabbed at her eyes as she accepted an American flag from Brig. Gen. Belinda Pinkey. Laybourn's fiance, Jim Ferguson, sat by her side in the muggy air as Crombie received a rifle salute.

Also in attendance was a family friend of Love, who was buried at Arlington last week.

Crombie's grandmother Mary Brock, speaking by phone from Idaho, praised her grandson, known as Nick, for his "great energy of life."

He lived with her during his last six months of school at Cibola High in Yuma, she said. He was an avid musician who played drums in the school band and aspired to teach high school band after the Army.

He also played in garage bands with friends, and sometimes they practiced in his bedroom.

"They were very loud," she said.

Brock said Crombie's death had made his two brothers, Dan Crombie, 23, and Jason Laybourn, 13, more aware of the importance of family.

"They have been proud of their brother and not mad at the world," she said.

Laybourn said her middle son's death motivated her older son, who manages a pizzeria, to go to college, where he may study medicine.

"He said it was nice having a brother who was so caring about other people," she said. "He said it was time to not think about himself -- it was time to think of others. Nick has given him the inspiration."

Laybourn said it was comforting to know her son had done exactly what he had aspired to do.

"Not many 19-year-old people can say they accomplished what they wanted to in life."

She paused for a moment.

Then, her voice breaking, she added: "I just miss him. I miss him so much."