Five months ago, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Orlando Thompson was brought back from active duty overseas to attend his mother's funeral in Branchville.

Little did his family and friends realize that would be the last time they would see the 26-year-old alive.

He and two other soldiers died last Thursday in a small arms and rocket-propelled grenade ambush five miles south of Tikrit, Iraq, the military announced Monday.

Thompson, 26, was born and reared in Orangeburg, said his cousin, Delores Gunter. They spent summers together when they were younger, she said. "We had a lot of fun. He was just an ordinary kid."

Thompson had two brothers and three sisters. The oldest sister was Mary Ellen Bell, who retired from the Army with the rank of sergeant first class.

"He was the goofy one in the family. He always made us laugh," Bell said. "Even though he was the baby, he was the biggest and the tallest. He was our protector. He always wanted to make sure we were OK."

"He was a very gentlemanly person, a very kind and considerate young man," Gunter said. "He was very helpful around his friends and his mother."

Thompson played football and basketball at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School before graduating in 1995, Bell said.

"All of us graduated from O-W," Bell said. And even though they've scattered now -- to Spartanburg, Easley, Macon, Ga., and Killeen, Texas -- "we vowed we would always stay close together and support each other no matter what."

Thompson joined the Army on Nov. 7, 1996. "I was the one that talked him into (joining) the military," Bell said, adding that it offers opportunities to travel the world, obtain educational benefits and serve the nation.

After basic training, Thompson was stationed in Germany before being transferred to Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, where he played semiprofessional football with the Fort Hood Warriors.

Four years ago, Thompson married his high school sweetheart, the former Valerie Green. They have a son, Jaykwon Kyreek Thompson. He is now 2.

Valerie joined the Army, too, but after basic training "she decided she didn't like it and got out," Gunter said.

But Thompson decided he liked the military so much, "he decided he was going to make the military a career," Bell said. He was with the 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.

Thompson became an artillery fire support specialist. It was dangerous work.

"You know those guys like Rambo, with the rockets on their shoulders? Well, that's the kind of things they do. They are in the line of fire," Bell said.

"He enjoyed his job," she said. "He knew he had a mission. He wasn't worried about getting killed. You don't think about stuff like that. You just do what you have to do. He was the team leader, and he always took care of his soldiers."

He was on his second tour of combat duty, Bell said. The first time, he was stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia.

"He was in Iraq when his mother (Hattie Lee Moorer Thompson) passed away on April 18, and the Red Cross got him back here" for the funeral, Gunter said.

Neither Gunter or Bell personally supports the American military intervention in Iraq.

"President Bush should get all of those American kids out of there. They're serving no purpose," Gunter said. "All they're doing is getting killed. There have been more killed after (Bush's announcement that major fighting had come to an end) than before."

"Bush said these guys wanted our help, but (American soldiers) are trying to help them and are getting ambushed and getting killed. And for what kind of purpose?" Gunter asked.

Bell said she has seen it from both sides, military and civilian.

"As a soldier, you're given orders, you carry them out, you do what you have to do. As a sister, no one should have to go through this," she said. "I don't think we should be over there. but I have to support my brother. We chose to go into the military. It's a volunteer army. We do what we have to do."

While he was overseas, Thompson and his wife "would e-mail each other every day," Bell said. "She would send him goodie boxes. He always asked for sardine steaks. She would also send him videos, movies, CDs and stuff."

"They were high school sweethearts. They had planned on spending their life together," Bell said.

Now the family is just waiting for the military authorities in Dover, Del., to release the body to Owens Funeral Home of Branchville. They hope they can have a funeral sometime this weekend.

A grave site has to be found. "We're going to try to find a plot near his mom," Bell said.

T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552.

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