Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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First Lt. Leevi K. Barnard |
Sunday, May 24, 2009
By BULLETIN STAFF REPORTS -
Thomas L. Barnard remembers his grandson, First Lt. Leevi Khole Barnard of Ararat, as a man of integrity.
“He was solid,” Barnard said. “Anything he said, you could depend on.”
Around midnight Thursday, the family was notified that First Lt. Barnard died in combat while serving on his third tour of duty in Iraq.
Barnard said family members have received few details of the incident from the military, except that there were eight servicemen involved and three were killed.
He was not sure when the incident occurred.
Barnard recalled helping raise his grandson. He said they enjoyed hunting and fishing together.
“He was like a son to me,” he said.
First Lt. Barnard was the son of Pamela Jane Barnard Payne of Patrick County. She is the daughter of Thomas Barnard and his wife, Daisy Barnard.
First Lt. Barnard went to Blue Ridge Elementary School and graduated from Patrick County High School in 1998, according to a release from Patrick County School Superintendent Roger Morris.
Thomas Barnard said his grandson was in JROTC in high school and then worked and attended college in Charlotte, N.C. He could not immediately recall the name of the college.
Barnard said his grandson had been in the military for several years.
He added that he did not know when his grandson’s remains would be returned to the United States.
“It is difficult to imagine the loss to our community, particularly at a time of remembering our fallen soldiers,” Morris wrote Friday, referring to this weekend’s Memorial Day observance.
Morris has ordered that the flags at all Patrick County schools be lowered to half-staff until Barnard’s burial. He also requested that a moment of silence in the schools on Tuesday be dedicated in Barnard’s memory.
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