Fallen Carson soldier recalled as 'the type of soldier every leader wants'

Sgt. Michael P. Scusa talked so much about his wife and baby boy that his fellow soldiers sometimes told him, jokingly, to shut up.

On Friday, the woman and child so often discussed on a deployment thousands of miles away sat before a flag-draped coffin as all the talk turned to him. Scusa’s funeral was held at First United Methodist Church in downtown Colorado Springs before he was taken to Fort Logan Cemetery in Denver for burial.

The 22-year-old was killed Oct. 3, one of eight Fort Carson soldiers who died in a fierce, daylong battle against more than 300 insurgents at remote outposts in Nuristan province in Afghanistan. It was the deadliest day for Fort Carson since the Vietnam War. A statement from Lt. Col. Robert Brown, read aloud by U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kurt Story at the service, talked about the valiant efforts by Scusa and others that day. “Eight have fallen,” he wrote. “Their actions preserved the lives of many.”

Scusa, who was originally from Villas, N.J., set his sights on the military as a child, according to his family, and he was known for an ever-present smile and his penchant for saying, “It’s all good.” In Afghanistan, he was never short on updates about his wife, Alyssa, and 1-year-old son, Connor. From Connor’s latest noises to his first steps a few weeks ago, soldiers felt they came to know his family without meeting them, one sergeant said in a statement read by Story.

“He came into the Army as a slightly reckless, wide-eyed youth,” the sergeant wrote. “He became the type of soldier every leader wants.”

In a slideshow, photos of Scusa captured the transformation of a towheaded little boy to a young man showing off his muscles on the monkey bars to a father in fatigues doting over his infant son.