Soldier's Dedication To Family, Duty Recalled

Anthony Davis never met a stranger. He was a charismatic soldier with a big heart, a man gifted with a deep vocabulary, a commanding voice and "the gift of gab," his wife said.

Anna Davis described her husband as a humble and giving man and a devoted and dedicated husband, father and soldier.

Army Master Sgt. Anthony Davis, 43, died Nov. 25 in Baaj, Iraq, after being shot by an Iraqi security force soldier while conducting a humanitarian food drop, according to the Department of Defense. The incident is under investigation.

"He's loved and missed, and I know he's up in Heaven, smiling on me right now," Anna Davis said yesterday from the family's home in Triangle.

Davis had a military career that spanned the world and nearly a quarter-century. He was born in Baltimore, the middle of 17 children, in a "very, very, very close-knit family," his wife said. She said that he learned to help others by connecting the older and younger siblings and taking care of the younger ones.

"Everybody he met, he talked to," said Anna Davis, who is also in the military. "And he always, always looked at the person in their eyes when he talked to them, no matter who they were. He talked to the janitor the same way he talked to the president. It didn't matter."

A crowd of mourners gathered yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery to honor Davis. More than 70 cars and a bus carried more than 200 friends and relatives, who huddled under coats to protect against a cold morning breeze.

During the service, his wife accepted a folded flag, handing it to their 9-year-old son, Marc Anthony. Sitting close by were Anthony Davis's other children: Keona, 26; Jerel, 20; Diana, 18; and Kaylah, 17.

Davis met his future wife in Korea in 1994 when she volunteered to pick him up from the soldier replacement center. She didn't address the higher-ranked Davis properly, so he corrected her and that let her know that he took being a soldier seriously. Two years later, they were married in Baltimore. They have lived in the Washington area for most of this decade and moved into their Triangle home in 2003.

Despite his pride in being a soldier, Davis had put in his retirement paperwork. Instead, he was ordered to Iraq, his wife said. She said he initially took separating from her again very hard because she had just returned from a year in Iraq, but he didn't fight it.

"He came to me one day, and he said, 'Well, if I don't go, I guess some soldier out there is going to have to take my spot, and he won't be ready, because he'll get two days' notice that he's leaving. And it's not fair to him for me to pass it on,' " she said. "And that's the kind of soldier he was."

He left home in January for training and shipped out March 22, the day of his son's First Communion.

"And at the end, he gave his life to protect another being," she said. "He saved another human being's life. He kept another soldier alive. He jumped in front of him, moved him out of the way and took the bullet for him."

Davis was a supportive man with a contagious smile, said Gary Richards, a retired Navy commander who worked with Davis in Seoul in 1996 and 1997.

"He was just one of those special characters," said Richards, who works for the Army at Fort Lewis, Wash. "He had the ability to befriend almost anybody and touch your heart with his acts of kindness toward you."

Richards said he has a reminder of Davis each day: In Korea, Davis helped Richards and his wife adopt their daughter.