There are two elements of Shakespearean tragedy to the story of Spc. Chris Dickison .
The first is romantic. Described as a shy 26-year-old from a close-knit Seattle family, Dickison had been scheduled to separate from the Army in April of 2005. He had recently found the love of his life, Magdalene Hasenkamp, and planned to marry her. But a stop-loss order - which delayed his departure from service until January of 2006 - delayed that wedding as it extended his tour in Iraq. The tour ended with his death July 5, 2005, in an explosion.
The explosion represented the second tragic twist. Friends said Dickison was great in a firefight -- fearless, really. He had been cited for his valor in those engagements. The only thing he feared, they said, was an improvised explosive device, the buried weapon planted by insurgents.
"He was very afraid of the IED," his sisters and brothers-in-law said. He expressed those fears in emails back home. Those devices, he explained, can't be confronted like an enemy in a battle.
Dickison knew what he wanted to do with his life. He would marry his sweetheart, go to school and become an engineer. "He had seen (what) the engineers in the Army do," his father, Rodney Dickison , said.
"They were getting their life together," his father said. "They were both very much in love with each other."
