Vernon Dent had expected his youngest home from Iraq in just four months. Yesterday, standing in the hallway outside the Park Road NW apartment he had shared with his son, Vernon Dent had pride in his voice, but also sorrow, and emotional exhaustion. His son was dead, killed in action. Spec. Darryl T. Dent, his father said, was a serious young man who avoided trouble, worked as a security guard after high school and dreamed of attending medical school. He was well-known in the athletic department of Roosevelt High School in Northwest — not for his athletic ability but for his skills behind the camera filming the football games. “That’s my baby boy,” said Vernon Dent. “He was a good kid.” Dent was the first National Guardsman from the Washington area to die in Iraq. Thirteen military personnel from Maryland, Virginia and the District, including Dent, have lost their lives in Iraq this year. He was killed Tuesday when the vehicle he was in hit an explosive device near the town of Hamariyah, 16 miles northwest of Baghdad. He was the first member of the D.C. National Guard fatally wounded in combat in decades, officials said. He had been assigned to the 547th Transportation Company with the Army National Guard based in Washington. Two other guardsmen from Dent’s unit were wounded, one critically, in the explosion, said National Guard officials. Full Story
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