Jacob C. Palmatier was interested in everything. That's why he began searching for a career path early. When he was younger, maybe 3 or 4, his idea was that he'd just seen this Bible story in Sunday school, and he wanted to be a shepherd. As a child, he read all the volumes of a set of junior encyclopedias we bought him. He taught himself how to play the guitar, and the saxophone. Jacob always did things the way he wanted to do them, he always marched to his own drummer. Jacob was only 29 when he was killed on Feb. 24 by a bomb detonated near his vehicle in Muqdadiyah. He was stationed at Fort Benning We thought he'd become a writer. Jacob wrote lots of different stories, usually funny. He had a quirky sense of humor that came out in his writing. He was the sort who loved Monty Python, the Simpson's, history, and all music. Jacob graduated magna cum laude from Illinois College in Jacksonville with a major in English and a minor in history. Jacob was 26 he joined the Army. He was our only child and the best of his father and me. Jacob is survived by his wife, Bridget, parents Margie & David and many family and friends. He was a loyal, loving, positive, creative, happy, funny, caring and thoughtful man. And we miss him every second of each and every day. The world is a less wonderful place without him in it.

Margie & David Palmatier, We are Jacob's parents