Joshua Michael Wyatt was born May 5, 1987 in Hawaii. He died November 24, 2009 after he was shot in the chest at his apartment in Killeen, Texas. He was on active duty in the United States Army at Fort Hood, Texas.
Pvt. Wyatt enlisted in the Army in April, 2006 and deployed to Iraq for 15 months in October 2007 with Alpha Troop, Regimental Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He came home in January 2009. His military awards included the Army Commendation Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal.
Pvt. Wyatt enjoyed drawing, writing poetry, dancing, music, playing basketball and golf.
Funeral services were held on December 1, a cold, blustery and rainy day, at Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home in Killeen. Present were Patriot Guard Riders who formed a line of American flags at the entrance to welcome family and friends as they arrived for the services.
Those Riders then led a funeral procession to the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery for interment services. There they joined other Riders, who had placed 50 American flags along the road at the Committal Shelter, in forming a flag line around that shelter as final services and military honors were held.
A detail of soldiers from Pvt. Wyatt’s unit rendered the formal military honors. Seven soldiers fired three volleys of fire, a bugler played taps, and a honors detail folded the flag covering the casket into a tight triangle. That flag was presented to his spouse. Other folded flags were presented to his two daughters, his mother and his father.
Pvt. Wyatt was laid to rest, in a driving rain, amidst a field of headstones decorated with Christmas wreaths, on the gentle slope of the cemetery. The American flag on the hill was at half-staff in his honor.
Left to cherish his memory are his wife, two daughters, his mother, his father, a brother, three sisters and numerous other loving family, friends and fellow soldiers.
With thanks to Killeen Daily News and Freedom Remembered for biographical background and photo.
