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They Say, our deaths are not ours, they are yours, they will mean what you make of them. They say, we leave you our deaths, give them some meaning. Archibald MacLeish poet and WWI veteran.

PFC Brandon Keith Bobb, age 20, of  Port Arthur, Texas, PFC Ron J. Joshua, Jr., members of the 401st MP Company . PFC Bobb a gunner in the M1114 Up-Armored Utility Truck Armament Carrier, was killed in action when an improvised explosive devise (IED) exploded near his vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq at 1330 hours on Tuesday, 17 July 2007.

PFC Joshua

     A kind heart, respectful, a gentleman... Who loved sports. Those are some of the ways people who knew 20 year old Private First Class Brandon Keith Bobb are describing the fallen soldier.

     Bobb and two other soldiers in the 401st Military Police company were in a humvee that was struck by a roadside bomb. The Port Arthur soldier was just two weeks away from coming home.

     "He was mild mannered... willing to please... well behaved... he was a gentleman."

     Geraldine Viltz has been a friend of the Bobb family for her entire life. She's also a counselor at Memorial High School. Bobb attended classes there until his senior year in 2005, when the family moved to Florida. Shortly after graduation, he was stationed at Fort Hood when he got the orders sending him to Iraq.

     "It's hard because he was such a well liked person and his family is so well known in the community."

     "When I met him he was a very respectful young man... he comes from a fine family."

     Port Arthur Police Chief Mark Blanton is a close friend of Bobb's family.

    "This is the third soldier from Port Arthur that has been killed in Iraq and it's tough... it seems like Texas takes the brunt of the losses."

     Chief Blanton says news of Bobb's death spread quickly through the Port Arthur community. While a man the chief calls a hometown hero is gone, he is not forgotten. Blanton says it's time to rally around the people Bobb loved most, his family.

     "We are going to assist the family any way we can to insure that proper respects are paid to someone who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country."

     It was a sad Monday morning in Port Arthur as the body of Pfc. Brandon Keith Bobb was welcomed home for the last time.

     After a hero’s welcome at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport — complete with a water-made rainbow arch for the taxiing plane flying Bobb home— a procession carried the fallen soldier through the streets of his hometown. He was due to come home on July 26.

     Along the route, hundreds of faithful supporters waved American flags to the passing cars carrying Bobb’s family to Gabriel Funeral Home.

Courtesy of the The Port Arthur News, photographer unknown.

     "It’s a sad day to see our young men go to basic training, get sent to the front lines and this is how they return home — in caskets," said Mattie Morrow, a friend of the Bobb family. "My heart goes out to the family on this sad, sad day."

      Bobb’s uncle, Joseph "Joe" Bobb, took the news of his nephew’s death hard.

"I had to sit down," he said of receiving the tragic news. "His mother is my baby sister and all my life I’ve done things to protect her. I could be a thousand miles away and if she needed me, I’d be right there."

     Bobb’s uncle said the large, close-knit family is competitive in academics and athletics and he was not keen on the idea of the young man going into the military.

     "I didn’t like the idea at the time," he said. "But he manned up and did what he was going to do and I support him."

     Brandon Bobb was a typical teenager who pretty much followed in his family’s footsteps in athletics and academics. Many family members earned scholarships to various colleges in the U.S., which is something that pushed the young man towards the straight and narrow without a lot of heavy handedness, Joe Bobb said.

     A straight and narrow, respectful young man is how many remember Brandon Bobb and say he got those traits from his well-known family.

     "The family would give you their last, that’s just how they are," said Wesley Johnson. "It’s just so sad because he was so young. It’s good to see a young man serve our country and he gave his life trying to protect all of us."

    Whether a Port Arthur resident or a stranger to the Bobb family, the death of the American hero crossed all barriers and touched people across the area.

Edited from an article written by Amy Moore and Mary Meaux of the The Port Arthur News.