Garnet Robert Derby
Army LTC
From: Missoula, Missoula County
Date of Death: 2/9/2009
Conflict: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Lieutenant Colonel Garnet R. Derby, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, was killed Monday in a suicide car bomb attack in northern Iraq that also killed three of his soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter. The soldiers belonged to Derby’s personal security detachment. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, more than 1,500 soldiers stood in formation on the landing strip of the airfield at Forward Operating Base Marez as the remains of the fallen soldiers were loaded onto a C-130 Hercules for the journey back to the United States. A memorial service for the men took place Friday at FOB Marez.
“We honor Lieutenant Colonel Derby and the members of his PSD who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of freedom for not only the people of Iraq but for the lives of our citizens in America as well,” Colonel Gary V. Nordin, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry, said during the service, according to information from Multi-National Division-North. “Of all the soldiers I have known and lost during my time in the Army, I have never lost a closer friend than Gary Derby.”
His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster, the Purple Heart, Army Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service medals, and the Combat Action Badge. He also had the Order of Saint George and Order of Saint Maurice bronze medallions and the covenant Tarantula Belt Buckle number 358.
