Patrick McCaffrey:  

In Loving Memory of: Sgt Patrick Ryan McCaffrey Born May 26 at Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, Ca Was shot 8 times and Killed, June 22 2004, Balad, Iraq Purple Heart, Bronze Star, California Memorial Medal PatrickSpirit.net VeteransVillage.org On a hot August afternoon, the Homestead High School football team was suffering through extra wind sprints and conditioning drills. The weather was stifling, and players were starting to grumble. But cornerback Patrick McCaffrey stepped up to encourage his teammates to finish out practice with their heads held high. "He wasn't the biggest guy, but he always volunteered for the biggest job. He had no fear," says Eteka Huckaby, a running back who played alongside McCaffrey. Huckaby, who later played in three Rose Bowls as part of the University of Washington's football team, says, "He was one of the toughest guys that I ever played with." That zeal and fearlessness led McCaffrey to enlist with the California Army National Guard just days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. As part of the 579th Engineer Battalion out of Petaluma, McCaffrey shipped out to Iraq in March. It was there, in the town of Balad, where the Army specialist was shot and killed when his ground patrol unit was ambushed on June 22. This sort of situation was not something McCaffrey envisioned when he joined the National Guard, according to his mother, Nadia McCaffrey. "He wanted to help if something like [9-11] happened again. This was the first time his unit was sent overseas for combat since World War II. He did not expect to be going there," she says. "But once he was over there, he tried to do the best he could." "I really admired him for his determination, but he had that tenfold in compassion," adds Huckaby. Nadia's son's tour in Iraq included showing his characteristic consideration for everyone but himself. She says he worked as a medic in temperatures that reached well into the triple digits, so when it was time to rest, everyone made a run for the shade. Not McCaffrey. "He would go around che...Expand for more