Chesterfield Native Kept His Eye on the Goal

When Army Sgt. Jeffrey Reed found that Iraqi children were playing soccer with deflated balls or resorting to kicking around soda bottles, the lifelong soccer fan wrote home to organize a big shipment of balls.

Nor did he hesitate to get on the field himself and join in with anyone he found -- children and fellow soldiers alike, said his wife, Ashley Reed. It was just another facet of his long fascination with sports.

Reed, 23, died Monday in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when a grenade hit his vehicle in Taji. The Chesterfield, Va., native was 15 days from coming home from his second deployment. He had been in Iraq for more than 14 months.

Reed joined the army shortly after he graduated from high school in 2004, following the example of his older brother, who left college to sign up with the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Mark Reed, Jeffrey's father, described his son as "tenacious," someone who wouldn't back down until he reached his goal.

Growing up, Jeffrey Reed "was short for his size and rather chunky," his father said. As a teenager, Jeffrey resolved to do something about it. He lost 40 pounds through a combination of exercise and a strict diet.

That helped him on the soccer field, where he played for Lloyd C. Bird High School. His father recalled the end of a close game.

"Jeffrey just got the ball and dribbled through the whole team," Mark Reed said.

Reed married his high school sweetheart four years ago, right before his first deployment. They met at a restaurant where they both worked -- he as a dishwasher and she as a waitress. He was shy, so she made the first move.

"I kind of tricked him into going on a date with me," Ashley Reed said. She and the hostess told him that a bunch of friends were going to go out together. Would he like to come along?

"At the last minute, they all cancelled," Ashley Reed said, leaving the two of them alone.

She didn't have to resort to tricks for very long.

Although she didn't start as a hockey fan, the game grew on her, nurtured by Jeffrey's enthusiasm. He was an especially passionate fan of the Philadelphia Flyers, and the two of them drove many times to Philadelphia, his father's home town, to see games.

She remembered the time they had between the two deployments fondly.

"It was great having him home, just being able to reach out and touch him and talk to him whenever I wanted," she said. "Those are things you really take for granted until he's gone."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.