Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Rest in Peace - Sgt. James Treber


We recently received the sad news that my friend and former JROTC comrade passed away while serving in Afghanistan.

Army Sgt. James Treber, 24, of Imperial Beach, Calif.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.; died June 29 in Khosrow-E Sofla, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his vehicle rolled into a canal [1].

James Treber's commitment to freedom, his fellow soldiers and the defense of our country will never be forgotten. James was my squad leader during our NJROTC drill team competitions, and I was his assistant squad leader at the time. Our team, under his leadership as squad leader, qualified for the JROTC National Drill Championships, but was unable to attend due to lack of funds. James was the sharpest and most competitive guy I have ever worked with. Somehow, he always made difficult challenges look easy.

A memorable moment I have of James was during a military inspection- a Marine Corps drill instructor was inspecting him and his rifle before our drill exhibition. The DI stood quiet for most of his inspection...James was always the sharpest. As I was standing next to him waiting to be inspected by the same DI, I thought, "Oh this Sergeant must be easy-going, Treber did very well." But I was mistaken. When the DI stood in front of me, I realized James had raised the bar so high, that the DI spent his sweet time dealing with me… Shortly after the verbal abuse by the DI’s, we all had a good laugh.

We will never forget you James.

Rest in Peace, Brother.

1 comment:

Poorna Ramachandran said...

haha, well good thing I'm planning to go into Internal Medicine...it's actually "legitimate".

Kidding...I actually do appreciate the aesthetic part of medicine, and would like to have an aesthetic clinic in addition to my specialized practice (whatever that is).

And I totally understand the sense of feeling jaded...it seems like most of my attendings are telling me to drop out of med school and go into something else, which is rather discouraging.

Just perused some of your entries...I really like some of your writing style, and sorry to hear about your friend! :(

If you haven't already, you should check out the other blog I write for...http://www.thehmpress.com. Let me know what you think.