Location: 1282
Date: 12/8/2004
Rank: Sergeant
Branch: U.S. Army
Operation: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Sgt. Arthur Williams IV, a combat engineer with the U.S. Army’s 44th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, feel to small arms fire during a foot patrol near Ramadi on December 4th, 2004.
A 1991 high school graduate, he served in Germany and Kosovo and most recently in South Korea. In Korea, Williams started training in martial arts and began learning several Asian languages. He also took up painting, working on oil paintings of a Korean city and scenic mountains. “He loved the mountains,” said Michelle Ann Bohn, a sister. “He loved the peace, the quiet, the tranquility of it.”
“He definitely always tried to do the best he could,” his father, Arthur Williams III said. “He was not the best, but he tried harder.”
He said his son brings to mind the 1993 movie “Rudy” about Notre Dame walk-on Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, the tale of another football underdog who always gave it his all.
Williams III said his son was “very, very proud to be a soldier and was very proud to be serving his country.”