Aneurysm claims Utah soldier

FARMINGTON — Ammon Boyce isn't ready to fill Daddy's shoes just yet.

Just a week before his father's death, the 4-year-old begged Sgt. Timothy Boyce to come back from Iraq.

"Dad, when are you going to come home and be the man of the house?" asked Ammon, who turns 5 on Dec. 31. "I'm tired of being the man of the house."

But Daddy isn't coming home. Sgt. Timothy Boyce, 29, died Friday from a brain aneurysm. He had been complaining about terrible headaches for weeks, his wife, Sharon Boyce, said.

Boyce collapsed just after 5 a.m. Wednesday during physical training at Camp Tiger in northern Iraq, his father, Rick Boyce, said.

"It was just like a time bomb in his head," his father said of the growing aneurysm that doctors said had been there since birth.

Military officials rushed Boyce to Landstuhl, Germany, after finding out he was an organ donor. He was kept on life support until his brother, Brad, could fly to Germany from Kuwait to comfort him during his last moments of life.

By the end of the day, Timothy Boyce's organs saved several lives as doctors were able to harvest his lungs, heart, liver, kidneys and corneas.

"The German doctor said it was the cleanest liver he'd ever seen," Rick Boyce said of his son, a devout follower of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which proscribes alcohol and tobacco use.

Now Sharon is left to raise Ammon and 3-month-old Gracelynn on her own, no easy task for a woman crippled with health problems.

Throughout two deployments, Timothy Boyce worried about his wife's health problems, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and blood clots in her lungs. She walks with an oxygen tank at her side.

"He always took care of me," Sharon said. "He was so amazing. I was very blessed to have him for eight years."

Boyce joined the Army two weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He wanted to earn money to pay for his education instead of taking free grants. Boyce was never one to accept handouts, Sharon said.

He was assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry's Maintenance Troop, Support Squadron, based at Fort Carson, Colo., where he worked on computer systems on Bradley fighting vehicles.

It was his second deployment, and Boyce was scheduled to return to his family around Valentine's Day. The last time he was home was in September when Gracie was born. During the nearly three-week stay, he held on to the little girl and wouldn't let her go.

Some days he would hold her all day and night, feeding, rocking and changing her diapers.

"He said, 'She's just got me wrapped around her little finger,' " Sharon said of little Gracie.

Little Gracie likely won't remember her father, but Ammon knows where Daddy went.

Hours after his mom broke the news, Ammon told his preschool teacher about his hero, his father.

"My dad got really really sick in Iraq and he died and he gets to go and live with Heavenly Father and Jesus," Ammon told his preschool teacher, according to his grandmother, Peggy Strong. "Isn't he lucky?"

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com