Roanoke Green Beret Dies in Vehicle Accident in Iraq

Staff Sgt. David W. Textor was an expert in international weaponry. He was a Green Beret, had a parachutist's badge and had just arrived in Iraq in May. He was also a father of five.

Textor, 27, was killed July 15 in a vehicle accident in Mosul, the military said yesterday. The accident, which did not occur during combat, is under investigation.

The New York native, who lived in Roanoke before joining the Army, had two goals, his sister said.

"He wanted to grow up and have kids," Michelle Krawczyk said. And he wanted to be a soldier. "So he did everything he wanted," she said.

Krawczyk, who lives in Roanoke, said that when she was pregnant with her first son, her brother would preemptively complain that the baby would soon be waking him up as he tried to sleep across the hall.

"But when my son came home from the hospital and made the first peep, he was the first one in my room" to look after him, she said. Textor was 13 or 14 at the time. "He was the first one to say, 'I'll babysit.' There was just something in him."

"Most macho guys don't want to hold a brand-new baby. He was all for it," Krawczyk said. " 'Just hold it like a football,' he'd say. 'There's nothing to it.' "

Textor was tough and could be wild, his family said. In the hours after they learned of his death, his family and friends said, they thought about all his narrow escapes. There was the time he flipped and totaled a car but emerged unhurt.

He would always take the dare, one time climbing a soaring water tower. One friend remembered him as the craziest person he knew, the kind of guy who would be around a long time.

He had the privileges and attention that can come with being the only son in a home with five sisters. But he lived up to his part, his family said.

"I'd always call him my little big brother," Krawczyk said. Any hint of a boyfriend problem would prompt a quick call to the guy from her brother. Before he joined the Army, he tried to make sure his sister was getting married, "to make sure I wasn't going to need him."

"It's hard to cry over him. Every time I try, I hear him: 'Knock it off. What are you crying about? . . . Keep going,' " she said.