Location: 949
Date: 8/17/2004
Rank: Specialist
Branch: U.S. Army
Operation: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Spc Brandon Titus was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, NY. He was killed on August 17th, 2004 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his checkpoint in Baghdad.
Brandon had served in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for only a few months.
He graduated from Borah High School where he played varsity football and enlisted in the Army on a delayed entry program. As a machine gunner, Brandon often stood in the turret of his Humvee; he knew that made him a target but he also knew what would happen if he chose not to do it. “Then one of my buddies is going to go up there. And if he gets hit that is going to be on my conscience.”
Brandon wrote a letter to his father, Tom Titus, to be opened only upon his death. That letter read in part: “Before I could take all freedoms and liberty this country has granted, I had to earn them,” he wrote. “I don’t see any greater honor than giving my life for my country, my family and my friends.”