Carson soldiers remembered for their dedication to tough job

Sgt. Joshua Rimer was going to be an electrician someday.

Spc. Randy Neff could make comrades laugh so hard their sides ached, eulogists said at a Fort Carson memorial service Tuesday for the pair who died last month in Afghanistan.

What they had in common, those eulogists said, was a dedication to the mission they volunteered for: working as combat engineers to help clear roadside bombs from the highways of Afghanistan.

“They chose the only job in the Army that starts with the word ‘combat’,” said eulogist Lt. Col. Craig Simonsgaard.
The two died July 22 when a bomb detonated near their convoy from Fort Carson’s 4th Engineer Battalion.

Before their deaths they and their comrades faced an odyssey unique in eight years of warfare. The battalion went to Iraq in February, but as that war started to wind down, the Army decided to send the soldiers to Afghanistan in the first move of troops between the war zones.

The move inspired Rimer, a 6-year veteran who had been to combat three times, on his new career path. In Afghanistan, the battalion inherited a dilapidated building for its headquarters, and with a little instruction, the sergeant set out to give it a makeover.

His friend Spc. Christopher Hendrickson said Rimer spent weeks hammering way at the building on a base in Kandahar, learning along the way how to string electrical wire.

“You can’t look on that base in Afghanistan and not see something he built,” Hendrickson said, noting that the skinny 24-year-old from Pennsylvania talked of becoming an electrician and settling into civilian life with his bride, Annalisa.

“They were the most picture-perfect couple,” Hendrickson said.

Neff, on his first deployment, was proving his worth to the battalion. He was selected for an elite job in the unit, serving as a bodyguard for commanders when they ventured off the base.

“He was a strong-hearted kid, he’d be the first one up ready to go,” said his friend Spc. Steven Speilbauer.

Neff, who is survived by his wife, Madelyn, joined the Army in 2006. The 22-year-old from Blackfoot, Idaho, had a gift for making even grizzled veterans laugh.

“He would flash his trademark grin and everyone around him would feel better,” Capt. David Cuthbertson told mourners gathered in Soldiers Memorial Chapel.

Laughter is important for the engineers as they tackle one of the toughest jobs in modern warfare. Equipped with armored trucks, they roam roads ahead of supply and combat convoys, seeking out the bombs that others avoid so they can be detonated safely.

Hendrickson said the mission, common in Iraq, is relatively new in Afghanistan where insurgents have moved to bombings to counter the American reinforcements.

“We’re pretty much the only ones doing what we’re doing there,” Hendrickson said. “We’re establishing the standards of how the mission should be done in Afghanistan.”