Michael L. Burbank

Age:   34 Hometown: Bremerton, WA Date of Death: 10/11/2004 Incident Location: Mosul, Iraq Branch of Military:   Army Rank: Staff Sgt. Unit: 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment Unit's Base: Fort Lewis, Wash.

You could instantly tell Michael L. Burbank was a skateboarder. The sides of his head were shaved and a long strip of hair, which he often wore in a ponytail, ran down the middle. "He was a skater dude. That was just him," said sister Linda. "I think a lot about him teaching me how to skateboard." Burbank, 34, Bremerton, Wash., died Oct. 11 when insurgents attacked his convoy in Mosul. He was stationed at Fort Lewis. "He was unique," said his mother, Dorothy. "He had a wacky sense of humor, he was dependable, and sometimes irritating as a child. But he was the one who if something went wrong would come and give me a hug and say, 'It's all right, Mom.'" A 1988 high school graduate, Burbank studied computers at Eton Technical Institute, then attended Olympic College's culinary arts program. When his wife, Shawna, met him in 1994, Burbank was working two jobs and had that same skater haircut. But she noticed something special. "He was more serious than the other guys I had been dating," she said. "He was looking for a direction to go."

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