"And when he gets to heaven,
 To Saint Peter he will tell,
 Another soldier reporting sir,
 I've served my time in hell."
 
While we were spending time with friends and family on 30 May 2004 spending time with friends and family, Ken Ballard was receiving an operations order to execute another combat patrol into the holy city of Najaf, Iraq.  While we were firing up our grills, Ken Ballard was doing final pre-combat inspections on his men and his equipment.  While we were eating lunch on our patios across Murfreesboro enjoying each others company and the 3 day weekend, Ken Ballard gave his men the order to move out.  While we were remembering the sacrifices of America's battlefield warriors, 1LT Ken Ballard gave his life for his men, his mission, and his country.  Least we forget.  He will "be remembered.  We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.  For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."  I had the same major as Ken so we had alot of classes together.  He always saw me before I saw him.  He would always come up to me and ask how everything was going and be the first to volunteer a hand of help.  I will never forget the countless hours of studying for political science tests or sitting/sleeping through those classes day after day or the lunches at the KUC or the early mornings at physical training with Ken.  When I'm lying in my bed at night now one image keeps reappearing in my head.  We were on a road march during Ranger Challenge going up what I thought was a mountain but it was a huge hill nicknamed by the soldiers Agony.  I was exhausted trying to suck as much air into my lungs as possible, my heart pounding in my ears, and sweat pouring off of me.  I heard someone yelling behind me and I thought to myself how can anyone even talk right now?  So, I turned around to see Ballard motivating another soldier.  Here Ken is absolutely exhausted and still his thoughts and actions are on helping out a buddy who needed a little help.  Wherever Ken went, he was surrounded by friends whether it was Murfreesboro, Ft. Knox, Germany, or Iraq.  After I found out about Ken's death, I looked at the website that his mother set up for him in which she named Ken Ballard, My Hero.  Alot of Ken's friends from all over the country had written to him after finding out about his death and some that didn't even know him but wanted his mother to know that they appreciated what he had done.  The room always lightened up when we saw Ken's smiling face come walking through the doors because we knew a good joke or funny story was soon to follow.  I am still waiting for Ballard to call me up and see how everything is going.  We have all lost a good friend and soldier and Karen Meredith, Ken's mother, has lost her only son.  She sent an angel to the streets of hell to provide all of us and people a half a world away with the greatest gift, freedom.  I want to leave you with a quote by George Orwell that describes 1LT Ken Ballard and all of our other fallen brothers fittingly:
     "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
Thank you all for coming out and remembering a good friend and great American.
 

Lt Larry Parlow