Utah soldier dies in Afghanistan

SALT LAKE CITY — Capt. Ellery Ray Wallace survived two tours of duty in Iraq. But when the Utah soldier said goodbye to his wife and four young children this summer before leaving Fort Campbell (Ky.) for deployment to Afghanistan, he felt something he'd never felt before.

He knew he was seeing his family for the last time.

The Department of Defense announced Monday that Wallace's premonition became reality Sunday; the 33-year-old died from wounds inflicted when a rocket-propelled grenade stuck his vehicle in Nangahar, Afghanistan. Pfc. Bryn T. Raver, 20, of Harrison, Ark., also died as a result of the same attack.

"Ray went over to Afghanistan not only because it was his company and he was the commander of it — he went knowing that he wouldn't be coming back," Dewayne Wallace, Capt. Wallace's father, said during a phone interview Monday. "What I would like people to know is that his death is not wasted. It was for something important."

While attending the University of Utah nearly a decade ago, Ray Wallace participated in ROTC. He graduated with a sociology degree in 2003 and immediately joined the Army. Although he grew up in Texas, the military considers Wallace a Utahn because he resided in the Beehive State at the beginning of his military service. He belonged to the U.S. Army's 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

A really straight shooter

When Theresa Martinez, associate professor of sociology at the University of Utah, received the reporter's e-mail Monday asking about Ray Wallace, she hoped that he hadn't been one of her students.

But when she looked at the roll from her fall 2001 Sociology 1010 class, memories of the respectful, thoughtful student who wore his ROTC uniform to class, who spoke his mind and contributed to class discussions, came rushing back.

That was the semester that included Sept. 12, 2001, the class date in which Martinez had her students discussed the terror attacks of the previous day.

Some students said the United States deserved the attacks.

But not Ray Wallace.

She remembers that he said he didn't believe Americans deserved to be attacked, that there was a moral problem if someone believed that.

"He was just a really straight shooter," Martinez said.