Md. Soldier, Killed in Iraq, Is Laid to Rest

Maj. Gen. Michael W. Symanski presents a flag to Ashley Weeks, widow of Spec. Ari D. Brown-Weeks, at Arlington National Cemetery. Brown-Weeks, of Abingdon, Md., died Sept. 10 in a noncombat accident in Iraq. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

People join the military for many reasons. Spec. Ari D. Brown-Weeks was influenced by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was killed one day before the sixth anniversary of the attacks.

Brown-Weeks, 23, of Abingdon, Md., died Sept. 10 in Baghdad when the truck he was riding in rolled over, according to the Department of Defense. It was a noncombat-related accident, and the circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. Six other soldiers died in the accident.

Brown-Weeks was laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery, buried in Section 60, alongside many of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was the 374th member of the military killed in Iraq to be buried at Arlington.

More than 90 mourners, including his parents, Karyn D. Brown and Jon M. Weeks, and his widow, Ashley Weeks, followed Brown-Weeks's flag-draped coffin to the grave site.

Brown-Weeks was a talented athlete who played baseball and soccer and loved to ski. He was also a writer with a passion for poetry, his father told the Republican newspaper in Greenfield, Mass.

"He loved his family above all and was loyal to the end with his friends," his father told the Republican. "He loved being around people and always needed to be where the action was."

Ruth Charney, who taught Brown-Weeks when he was in 7th and 8th grades at Greenfield Center School in Massachusetts, remembered him as "very warm-hearted."

"People often talked about his beautiful smile, how much he could radiate a kind of joy and pleasure in things and warm other people," Charney, now retired, said.

She was recently cleaning out files and found some essays and creative writing pieces he had done for her language arts and literature classes. "I was struck with the sense of detail, his attachment to people and things and family and friends. He was someone who did have that kind of real deep attachment and loyalty and ability to have enduring friendships," she said.

Brown-Weeks was a rambunctious student, but he had a good heart and always owned up to what he did, Charney said. He would later go back to the school and work as a mentor and coach to mischief-causing kids such as he had been.

"It's a tragedy," she said. "He had so much life ahead of him."

Brown-Weeks was affected by the terrorist attacks and joined the Army in May 2006, his father told the Republican. He married Ashley Weeks in December of that year and was deployed to Iraq a month later. He was due back this fall.

The soldiers killed with Brown-Weeks were Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, of Ismay, Mont.; Staff Sgt. Gregory Rivera-Santiago, 26, St. Croix, Virgin Islands; Sgt. Michael C. Hardegree, 21, of Villa Rica, Ga.; Sgt. Omar L. Mora, 28, of Texas City, Tex.; Sgt. Nicholas J. Patterson, 24, of Rochester, Ind.; and Spec. Steven R. Elrod, 20, of Hope Mills, N.C. They were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Gray and Mora were among a group of soldiers who last month wrote a New York Times op-ed piece criticizing the U.S. strategy in Iraq and disputing claims of success.