Gary Lee Dowd

Jaime, Roz, Jade, Judy & Mike, and Jeremy ...

I have been struggling with this for the past week.

First time I met Gary was either after his time in Walter Reed Hospital or a long weekend where they were allowing him to go out before they released him. That said ... his cousin, Mike Bruner (my brother-in-law) brought him to my parents house for the family gathering over what I think was the 4th of July weekend. Mike was taking Gary fishing and got new fishing polls for everyone in the family that was going. Mind you; Gary stepped on a land mine and lost part of his arm and definitely his hand. Gary was shy (at first) but opened up to each of us as we all were trying to get to know him. Jaimie was there with Jade ... and I believe this was her first time meeting him, also. Gary certainly knew how to "bring us all into his world."

Best part of that weekend ... and little did any of us know that he and Jaime would, over time, develop a truly wonderful friendship/love and got married in 2011. He took Jade in as his own daughter and it was so special to watch their love for each other over time. Jaime & Gary had their own daughter, Roz. It was just special to see.

Words can not express the sorrow I feel for Jaime, Roz, Jade, Judy & Mike, Jeremy and the rest of the family at the loss of this special and endearing man. We all loved him and he will be missed.

Sgt Dowd was my gunner during the 1/22 deployment to Iraq. My first memory of Sgt Dowd was on moterpool Monday. I was cleaning out the back of my Bradley and tossed out a 10lb piece of metal called a tow shackle. Sgt Dowd had just walked up and I had missed hitting him with the shackle by a few inches. Sgt Dowd looked at me and said "Pfc Gillis you trying to hit me" I retorted "Negative Sgt if I wanted to hit you with it I wouldn't have missed you". I got to hold that very peice of metal straight out in front of me for ten minutes. We made a great crew. I love you brother may you Rest In Peace, until Valhalla. Joe Gillis

God bless you and your family in this time of sorrow.

I haven't seen Gary since school but often thought about him and where and what he was doing. I'm so sorry about his passing and I'm praying for his family.