Soldier spoke of 'fighting for you'

By WILLIAM PETROSKI

An Iowa native who died last week in Afghanistan was being remembered Saturday as a man who loved the Army and his family and deeply believed in his mission overseas.

Sgt. Scott Stream, 39, wrote in a letter to a friend on New Year’s Eve: "If it costs me my life to protect our land and people, then that is a small thing. I just hope that fate lets me return to the promised land and remind people just how great our land is."

Stream was among four U.S. soldiers and an Afghan civilian who were killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in Kandahar.

Stream grew up in southeast Iowa and graduated in 1987 from Davis County High School in Bloomfield, where he wrestled, ran cross country and played baseball. He also attended Drake University.

He was on his third deployment with the Illinois Army National Guard and planned to leave the military after completing his latest overseas assignment in May, relatives said Saturday.

Stream was the 69th person with ties to Iowa to be killed in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to Des Moines Register records.

Stream had worked over the past decade as an electrician in Mattoon, Ill., a small community about 50 miles south of Champaign.

He enlisted in the Illinois National Guard in July 2000 and was assigned to a unit of the 130th Infantry in Effingham, Ill. He had previously served on active duty in Iraq and Germany.

He was married and had two children, Laura, 5, and Megan, 16.

He was scheduled to return home on leave in two weeks for Laura’s birthday. The family planned a horse-riding party.

"Words cannot describe how our family is feeling after the loss of our hero, Scott," said his wife, Rasa.

"He was an amazing father, husband and son who made the ultimate sacrifice for the country he loved," she said in a statement.

"We will always remember him for the sacrifice he made. We will miss him, but he will never be forgotten."

Relatives recalled Stream as an even-tempered man who was fiercely loyal, loved to debate with friends and was a prolific writer.

He cherished serving in the National Guard, but he had concluded it was time to leave the military because repeated deployments forced him to spend too much time away from his family.

Stream, whose 40th birthday would have been next Wednesday, has drawn wide attention since his death because of a letter he wrote detailing his deepest thoughts about his military service and obligation to duty.

The letter was first published in the Chicago Tribune.

"We who joined with vague notions of protecting our country now see how desperate the peril, how hungry the enemy and how frail the security we have is," Stream wrote.

"So the more I love you all, the more I feel I must keep fighting for you. The more I love and long for home, the more right I feel here on the front line standing between you and the seething madness that wants to suck the life and love out of our land.

"Does that mean I cannot go home? I hope not, because I want this just to be the postponement of joy of life, not the sacrifice of mine. … I just hope that I am not so changed that I cannot take joy in the land inside the wire when I make it home," he added.

His death coincided with plans announced last week by President Barack Obama to deploy an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 already there.

Killed with Stream were Sgt. Schuyler Patch, 25, of Owasso, Okla.; Sgt. Daniel Thompson, 24, of Madison, Wis., and Capt. Brian Bunting, 29, of Potomac, Md.

They had been on a patrol with Afghan National Security Forces when an explosive device detonated near their vehicle. An Afghan civilian working with coalition forces also died, Illinois Guard officials said.

Stream was the son of Sherman and Gayle Stream, now of Cave City, Ky.

Also surviving are a brother, Shawn Stream of Norwalk; a sister, Shannon Pape, of Hopkinsville, Ky.; an uncle, Dr. Rodney Stream of Chariton, and his grandmother, Vera Stream of Shannon City.

A memorial service will be Tuesday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Mattoon. A funeral Mass will be Saturday at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Hopkinsville, with burial at Veterans Cemetery there.

Arrangements are being handled by Hughart & Beard Funeral Homes of Hopkinsville.