DOB/DOD: March 10, 1977 (Middlebury, VT) – September 20, 2003; 31 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: Porter Avenue; Naugatuck
ENLISTMENT: February 2, 2000
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 96B20; Intelligence Analyst
UNIT: Company B, 325th Military Intelligence Battalion; Waterbury, Connecticut
FAMILY: Born to David A. Friedrich (1945-) and Elizabeth “Beth” G. Neal Friedrich (1946-). Two sisters, Tallie Friedrich Giuliano (1970-) and Amanda Friedrich Durkin (1975-).
DECORATIONS: Awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal (Expeditionary), Global War on Terrorism Medal (Service), Armed Forces Reserve Medal with ‘M’ device and ‘2’ device, Army NCO Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Army Overseas Service Ribbon, Meritorious Unit Commendation, and the Intel Badge.
CIRCUMSTANCES: David Friedrich and another soldier died when mortars hit a U.S. base near the Abu Ghraib prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Thirteen other soldiers were injured in the attack. Also killed in this incident:
Army Specialist Lunsford B. Brown II; Creedmore, NC
OTHER: Honors graduate of SUNY Brockport (New York), Class of 1999. He was the recipient of the “Recent Alum Award” in 2004. The award was designed to honor recent graduates who have received their bachelor’s degree within the past 15 years and who have developed a positive relationship with the Alumni Association, the University, given outstanding community service, or shown outstanding professional achievement. 2022 marked the conclusion of the Recent Alum Award. It was replaced with the 10 Under 10 Alumni Award.
From his father, Dave Friedrich, “Travis graduated from High school in 1995 and from SUNY Brockport in 1999. He was interested in forensics as he was earning his degree in chemistry, and he did 3 internships towards that. He spent the summer before his senior year in Scotland. He lived in a hostel in Edinburgh and spent his days at Leeds and Borders Police in their Forensics Laboratory, devising a Toxicology Database for all of Great Britain. He had enough time to tour around Scotland on his own, and he loved that! Considering how much time he had left; we are forever grateful that he had that experience. He was very happy. Beth and I drove to NYC to meet his plane when he flew back. Before we went to LaGuardia Airport, we went to the Guggenheim Museum to see The Art of the Motorcycle. At the very top of the spiral was the 1998 BMW R1200C. After he graduated Cum Laude in Chemistry, he moved to Massachusetts to look for work and to plan his next moves. He wanted a Masters in Forensic Science. We had helped all three of our kids with their undergrad degrees but could not add to our debt with graduate school. I reminded him of the GI Bill, and the next thing we knew, he was a Reservist with the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion in Waterbury, Connecticut, and a graduate student at the University of New Haven, Connecticut.” WEBMASTER’S NOTE: Travis was posthumously awarded a master’s degree in forensic science from the University of New Haven in Connecticut.
From his sister, Tallie Giuliano, “Travis was a runner from middle school to his death. He was on the cross-country team and the track team in high school and at SUNY Brockport. At Brockport, his main event was the steeplechase. In his journal, which he wrote in every day, he kept track of the details of his days — where he went, who he interacted with, what he ate, the music he listened to, how far he ran, and how long it took. For us, those details were proof of a full life well-lived. He had a hilarious, weird sense of humor. Anyone who was with him was smiling.
Gouverneur Central School (Gouverneur, NY) Central School; Class of 1995
From The New Haven Register on November 8, 2003
By Mark Zaretsky
UNH family honors fallen soldier with poignant, final tribute
In a room packed full of teary eyes, Elizabeth Friedrich smiled graciously as she and her husband, David, accepted a posthumous master’s degree in forensic science for their son, Sergeant David Travis Friedrich. Travis Friedrich, as he preferred to be called, left the University of New Haven last January as his Waterbury-based U.S. Army Reserve battalion was about to be called to active duty. He wasn’t there to accept the diploma himself. He died on September 20 in a mortar attack at a U.S. base near an Iraqi prison. He was 26, an honors graduate of the State University of New York at Brockport. He was attached to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade and was deployed with the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion in Iraq. “I’m so proud of Travis because of the work he put into the degree,” said Elizabeth Friedrich – like her husband, an English teacher at Gouverneur (New York) Central School – after accepting the degree from UNH President Lawrence J. DeNardis as part of the university’s Veterans Day commemoration. “It just meant a lot to us that he did receive this degree.” Besides, “sometimes you can just get cried out,” she said after the ceremony in the alumni lounge in Bartels Hall, the campus center. “Travis’ mother and his father are teachers. We understand the pursuit of excellence,” David Friedrich told the crowd after accepting his son’s diploma. “We understand the power that an educated person can have in the world. “Travis would have continued to have been one of the most powerful people in the world for good,” he said. “The real tragedy is what won’t happen, not what happened.” In addition to the degree, Graduate Student Council President Shawn Dolan, and several of Travis Friedrich’s friends – most with tears in their eyes – announced the endowment of the new Travis Friedrich Scholarship, to be presented for the first time in the spring. The scholarship will go to incoming UNH forensic science students. Dolan presented a plaque to Friedrich’s sisters, Amanda Friedrich and Tallie Giuliano. They also had tears in their eyes. Connecticut’s American Legion department commander, Lawrence F. Duffany, presented the Friedrichs with a Gold Star Banner. By the time Duffany finished speaking, he, too, had tears in his eyes. The keynote speaker, Major Peter A. Arcano, Friedrich’s former commanding officer, said forensics “was a passion for Travis- It was obvious to all who met him,” that Friedrich “was a bright young man,” he said. “He did his job, and he did it well,” Arcano said. “Travis was a shining example of what it means to be a citizen soldier.” The ceremony, preceded by a wreath-laying ceremony outside at the Maxcy Quad flagpole, had special meaning for some in the crowd because it wasn’t the first time the war in Iraq had taken a member of the UNH family. Just three months ago, on August 12, Staff Sergeant Richard S. Eaton Jr., son of UNH Director of Public Affairs Richard Eaton, and his wife, Sharon, was also killed in Iraq. Eaton, like Friedrich, was in military intelligence. The Eatons both attended and exchanged embraces with the Friedrichs afterward. David Friedrich, who for the most part was composed when he spoke to the crowd, told them nevertheless, “I have a few poets on my list, Robert Frost, for one,” that he can’t yet bring himself to read. He went on to quote one of Frost’s poems, “Lodged,” which reads:
The rain to the wind said,
You push, and I’ll pelt.’
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged – though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.
Friedrich said later, in response to questions, that “to be the father of a soldier doesn’t take much. It takes one cell going in the right direction.” But “to raise the child that becomes the soldier” is what takes the serious work, he said.
From FallenHeroesMemorial.com
“Missing you today, as every day, but with a greater sense of sadness and a bigger knot in my gut than on the other days. Angrier today than the others for being forced to remember you on a date that I hate. I like remembering good things about you, happy memories, and funny stories on dates like 3/10 or 12/25, but not on 9/20. But this date forces me to contemplate an event of inexplicable tragedy, horrific and incomprehensible in its violence and finality. This date makes me question this life and all the events that led to that moment, and what could have been done to change it so that you were not there. What if I had been there to answer the phone when you called to ask if you should join the army? Instead of returning your call the next day to tell you, “No, dummy, just take out loans like everyone else,” only to hear it was too late, you had signed up the day before? Well, awkward silence, we both laughed, “It’s not like there’s going to be a war or anything anyway.”
Or what if we had gotten married, even though we were too young and unprepared? We might have been young and foolish, but at least we’d both be here now. What if you hadn’t been forced to work outside in a tent within range of guys who blast mortars out of the back of their trucks and shoot them over prison walls? What if someone determined it would be safer inside? What a hard lesson learned. I know it is futile to think about such things, but I can’t help it today.
Over a year ago, upon learning it was one of your dad’s favorite books and you had almost been named Rufus, I started to read James Agee’s “A Death in the Family.” I couldn’t get through it though; I couldn’t deal with the tension…the waiting…the suspense. I forced myself to read it this year on 9/11 to prepare for this day. Of course, I was hoping for a happy resolution that never comes. Feeling so much sadness and anger this year…
But I looked through all your old pictures and letters this morning, which brought lots of laughter, smiles, and tears. I am still astounded by how insightful you were then…how you knew things about me then that it took me years to figure out about myself. You were mature in so many ways that I wasn’t…and you inspired me by your strength. Not only your physical strength and perseverance to face difficulty with a positive attitude and push yourself to new limits, but by your moral character and strength and practicality that was beyond our years.
I went to visit your parents this year in their new place in North Carolina. It was so wonderful to be with them again, to remember old times and make new memories. We got to eat great BBQ, see the Outer Banks and Cape Hatteras lighthouse, and our doggies made friends. I am so happy to still have them in my life. I still owe them a letter after our summer travels. They are enjoying retirement and having a great time…with one big hole in their hearts. It reminds me of when I spent the night at your house in Macomb in the fall of ’03, wishing you were there next to me, just wishing for one more day to say all the things that will remain unspoken.
Clinging to every memory with every tear and smile…. surprised or relieved to feel so much after 7 years?”
— Dionna Leung of Oakland, CA
Sergeant Friedrich was cremated. His father, David, shared the journey of his ashes this way: “Septuagenarian Gold Star Dad on motorcycle sprinkles son’s ashes at memorials in all 50 states.”