Todd-Bryant-American-Hero

Siblings serving country

TRADITION: Their parents, both veterans, are not surprised that they have chosen the military life.

12:00 AM PST on Friday, April 4, 2003

By SANDRA STOKLEY

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Jurupa residents Larry and Linda Bryant raised their children to believe that Americans should serve their country in some way.

"It wasn't something that we pushed them to do," Larry Bryant said this week. "It was their choice."

But the lesson wasn't lost on Tim, Tiffany and Todd Bryant.

Today, Maj. Timothy R. Bryant of the 1st Marine Division, 5th Marine Regiment, is just miles outside the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

His sister, 1st Lt. Tiffany Bryant, a West Point graduate, is stationed with the Army's 50th Signal Battalion outside of Kabul in Afghanistan.

And their brother, 2nd Lt. Todd Bryant, also a West Point graduate, is with the Army at Fort Riley in Kansas, serving with the 34th Armor Battalion. He awaits deployment to Iraq or South Korea.

Back at home, Larry and Linda Bryant do their part to support the U.S. war effort. They care for their children's dogs, keep track of their bills as they come dueand send care packages of toilet paper, baby wipes, socks and Girl Scout cookies.

Valerie Berta/The Press-Enterprise

A portrait shows, from left, Tim, Tiffany and Todd Bryant in their uniforms. Their parents, Larry and Linda Bryant of Rubidoux, were in the Air Force.

"We're running four households here," Linda Bryant said.

Seeking information

The Bryants' last communication from Tim was a letter from Kuwait dated March 15, just days before the war began.

"He said he was tired of waiting," Linda Bryant said. "He wanted to get going."

Now the couple get all their information from daughter Tiffany, who keeps in touch with her brother through military e-mail.

Reminders of the Bryants' three children are everywhere in the home.

There are pictures of the children in high school, pictures of Tiffany and Todd in their West Point uniforms. A large picture of Tim, Tiffany and Todd, all in uniform, adorns the wall behind the couch.

Tiffany and Todd's West Point hats are piled atop the bookcase. And a Blue Star Service Banner with three stars hangs in the front window.

Three televisions in the family room, set to MSNBC, CNN and Fox Television, help the Bryants track the progress of the war.

With two children serving on the front lines of the U.S. "war on terrorism," and a third poised to ship out, the Bryants say they can't help but feel some concern.

But those feelings are tempered by the couple's confidence in the training that Tim, Tiffany and Todd received and the professionalism of the country's armed forces.

"With the superiority of our forces, the likelihood of Tim getting killed is very low," Larry Bryant said.

And, while experts say Afghanistan remains a dangerous place, the Bryants say Tiffany is in a relatively secure area.

"There's always the chance for some random event, but she's not nearly as close to the action as her brother," Larry Bryant said.

Valerie Berta/The Press-Enterprise

The children of Linda and Larry Bryant of Rubidoux have followed them into the military. Tim is in Iraq with the Marines, Tiffany is serving in Afghanistan, and Todd is in Kansas awaiting deployment.

All in the family

The military life was not an unknown concept to the Bryant siblings.

Larry and Linda Bryant met, married and had their children while serving in the U.S. Air Force.

Larry, who served from 1970 to 1985, now works at JPL in Pasadena as a training engineer. Linda Bryant, who served from 1973 to 1986, is retired from JPL.

They said they weren't surprised when their eldest son chose a military career.

"He never seemed interested in anything else," Linda Bryant said.

Tim Bryant, 32, graduated from Rubidoux High School in 1988 and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He attended Purdue University in the NROTC program and was commissioned after graduation.

He has served in Okinawa, Japan, and Iceland, as well as at Quantico, Va., and Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Tiffany, now 25, set her sights on a military career as a high school freshman.

She won an appointment to West Point and attended from 1996 to 2000, majoring in engineering management. Tiffany served in South Korea and shipped out from Fort Bragg to Afghanistan in November.

Todd Bryant, a top-notch student and athlete, followed his sister to West Point in 1998 and graduated in 2002.

"I think he saw his older brother in the military, and he looked up to his sister, and he saw opportunities at West Point he wouldn't have anywhere else," Larry Bryant said.

Supporting the troops

Although the Bryants respect the right of people to protest the war in Iraq, they take a dim view of protesters.

"I think their opinions are pretty shallow and misinformed," Larry Bryant said. "The situation in Iraq had to be dealt with. Saddam Hussein is a threat to the region and to the rest of the world."

Reach Sandra Stokley at (909) 368-9647 or sstokley@pe.com

War hits home for Kansas students after teacher's husband killed in Iraq

ABILENE (AP) -- When the Army officers marched into Abilene High School on Friday, the war in Iraq suddenly hit a personal note for students.

The soldiers brought the news that first-year teacher Jenifer Bryant's husband of less than two months, 2nd Lt. Todd Bryant, had been killed while on patrol in Al Fallujah when an improvised explosive device detonated. He was 23.

"Knowing someone who was over there gave a little connection to the students," Principal Jason Webb said. "It really hit home for the kids the last couple of days. This took some of those things we talk about in an educational setting and put it in terms of what it means in real people's lives."

Webb said Jenifer and Todd Bryant met in college. Todd Bryant, who originally was from Riverside, Calif., graduated from West Point and was commissioned in the Army in 2002. In January, he was sent to Fort Riley.

Webb said Bryant joined her husband at Fort Riley after she graduated in May. The two were married in September, two weeks before his deployment to Iraq. He was a tank platoon leader assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.

"He was a wonderfully charismatic young man," Webb said. "He was only 23, but a West Point graduate and a platoon leader and an officer. He was young-looking, but very good at what he did."

A memorial service was Wednesday at Fort Riley, and Webb said Bryant will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Bryant was the 11th Fort Riley soldier to be killed while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. About 6,500 of the 10,000 troops assigned to For Riley have been deployed to Iraq, post officials said.

Webb said some classes have discussed buying books for the school library in Todd Bryant's name, and students have talked about collecting such items as magazines, puzzle books and lip balm and sending them to soldiers in Iraq.

LC High graduate dies in Baghdad explosion

By Chris Sutton

The La Canada Flintridge community is reeling from the news that one of its native sons has died while serving with U.S. Army forces in Iraq.

Second Lt. Todd Bryant, a 1998 graduate of La Canada High, was killed last Friday by an explosion on the road between Fallujah and Baghdad in western Iraq.

According to military reports, the 23-year-old officer was riding in a Humvee Oct. 31 when a roadside bomb went off at 8:30 a.m. local time. The other four soldiers traveling with him were wounded.

"Todd Bryant had already accomplished so much in his young life, and had both the potential and desire to do so much more. All of us, as well as our country, have suffered a great loss. Todd was well aware of the dangers facing him, but was trained to do what was needed to be done. He was an outstanding soldier above all else," said LCF resident Anita Brenner-Torres, a longtime friend of the Bryant family.

Bryant, a 2002 graduate of West Point, arrived in Iraq on Sept. 2 as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The young soldier's death came just two days before 16 of his countrymen were killed when a Chinook helicopter ferrying U.S. service personnel to Baghdad's international airport was shot down by a shoulder-fired missile.

Since the war in Iraq began on March 19, more than 350 American troops have lost their lives in combat or in other incidents.

On Aug. 30, just a few days before Bryant shipped out for the Middle East, he married Jen Reardon. The couple had planned the wedding for more than a year; just a few days before the event, he received his orders to report for duty.

A memorial service was held for Bryant yesterday morning (Wednesday) at the Morris Hill Chapel at Ft. Riley, Kansas. Burial will follow at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia next week. A local memorial service for Bryant will be held sometime in the next few weeks. The city's parks and recreation department has also received a request to add a new plaque at Memorial Park. A scholarship will be established at the high school in Bryant's memory and service to his country.

Besides his wife, Bryant, most recently a resident of Riverside, is survived by his parents, Larry and Linda Bryant, an older brother Tim, and a sister, Tiffany. His father works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory while his mother retired from there.

Bryant came from a military family, as both his parents are former military officers. Brother Tim is currently a major in the U.S. Marine Corps, while sister Tiffany, also a graduate of West Point, is a captain in the Army. Both of his siblings had served in the war region before Todd was assigned there.

Brenner-Torres, after receiving a phone call from Bryant's mother, who now lives in Orange County, placed a candle in his honor and memory under the American flag in Memorial Park on Saturday. As others heard about his death, they have come forward to honor him by leaving flags and flowers.

Bryant's former Palm Crest Elementary School principal, Don Hingst, recalls the young man as being full of life and one of the students who had a natural curiosity about everything. When he heard the news, Hingst e-mailed Bryant's elementary school teachers and they all wrote back saying, "He was my favorite student."

One teacher in particular, Hingst said, remembered the young man fondly. "Kathy Blackstock, a teacher now in Nashville, Tennessee, remarked how Bryant is with her in her classroom every day, as he quoted something that was so profound, she wrote it down and put it up in her classroom, where it remained," he said.

Mike Leininger, La Canada High principal, said of Bryant, "He was a great kid, very well rounded. It is a tragic shame. Things like this are not supposed to happen this way."

The Petersen family of La Canada also remembered Todd from elementary school through high school. Martha Petersen recalls how polite and respectful Bryant always was, even as a youngster. "He was always smiling and you could never forget his dimples. The news left us devastated," she said.

Her daughter, Erika Petersen, remembered Bryant as well. "Todd had the most beautiful smile," she said. Her brother, Chris Petersen, was a close school friend of Bryant's who played on the Spartan football team with him and was in the school band with him.

Petersen, now a corporal in the Marines who served in Iraq this year from February through September, recalled how Todd loved Notre Dame. "I remember the last game of the season in high school and he got the ball. He was truly 'Rudy'," Petersen said.

A page has been dedicated to Bryant on the West Point Web site, www.west-point.org/users/usma2002/x23630/.

Watch this paper for details of a memorial service to be held in La Canada Flintridge within coming weeks, organized by Brenner-Torres and former LCF Mayor Barbara Pieper.

Todd Bryant scholarship fund started

In lieu of flowers or other memorial items, the family of Todd Bryant, the young solider killed in an explosion in Iraq on Friday, has asked that any donations be made to a special fund that is being set up in his honor.

The donations should be made to the 2nd Lt. Todd Bryant Memorial Scholarship, which will be awarded to a deserving La Canada High senior. Todd graduated from LCHS in 1998.

Checks should be made out to: Community Scholarship Foundation of La Canada, Inc., P.O. Box 111, La Canada Flintridge, CA 91012.

Those sending donations should identify the "2nd Lt. Todd Bryant Memorial Scholarship" in the memo portion of the check.

Emotional recall of soldier's Iraq death

Pittston woman talks about daughter's visit to tell her of son-in-law's death.

By BONNIE ADAMS

Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Times Leader

Patricia Reardon watched as her daughter and an Army chaplain approached the house late last month.

To this day, the Pittston woman swears she saw her son-in-law, 2nd Lt. Todd Bryant, walking beside them with his hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Moments later, she would learn that Bryant, 23, had been killed earlier that day in Iraq.

"I swear to God, he came home with her that day," Reardon said. "I really thought that he was coming home."

Reardon said she was looking out a second-floor window of the couple's Kansas home at the time and went downstairs with a smile on her face, expecting to greet the couple.

"It was just such a shock. I sat by Jenifer and let her cry," Reardon said.

Reardon said only her belief in angels can explain what she saw on Oct. 31 at Fort Riley in Kansas where Bryant and her daughter Jenifer Reardon Bryant lived briefly. The mother waited a few days to tell Jenifer what she had seen and she said it seemed to comfort her.

The Army chaplain and other members of the casualty notification team broke the news to Jenifer at Abilene High School where she teaches. "She knew as soon as she saw them what had happened," Reardon said.