Person:Kenneth Von Ronn (3)

SGT. KENNETH VONRONN Bloomingburg, New York Sgt. Kenneth VonRonn of Walker Valley and Bloomingburg, New York, a SGT in the Army, Company D, 101 St. Calvary, Newburgh, New York and a lifetime resident of the area, died January 6, 2005 in Iraq. He was 20. The son of Raymond VonRonn and Debra Jackson VonRonn, he was born September 29, 1984 in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church, Walden, New York. He was a 2003 graduate of Pine Bush Central High School. He was the husband of Kira Conklin VonRonn. Survivors include his beloved wife at home; his loving parents, Raymond of Australia and Debra of Walker Valley; his loving sisters, Gina, Courtney and Samantha of Walker Valley; his loving grandmother, Maria VonRonn of Walker Valley, many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Visitation will be on Thursday, January 13, and Friday, January 14 from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at William M. Gagan Funeral Home, 1525 Burlingham Rd., Pine Bush, New York. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 15 at 11 a.m. at the William M. Gagan Funeral Home. The Rev. Raymond Cummings will officiate. Burial, with full military honors, will be in Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery, Liberty, New York. Memorial contributions may be made to USO World Headquarters, Department W.S. P.O. Box 96860, Washington D.C. 20090-96860. Arrangements were made by the William M. Gagan Funeral Home, Inc., 1525 Burlingham Rd., Pine Bush, New York. For directions go to www.wmgaganfuneralhome.com

Pine Bush soldier, 20, latest casualty of war

By Christian M. Wade
Times Herald-Record
cwade@@th-record.com

Blooomingburg – They spoke on the telephone, just hours before he went on patrol.
He told her he was OK. He missed her. He was coming home soon.
The 20-year-old soldier's parting words to his wife were comforting: "I love you."
On Thursday, her husband, Army Pfc. Kenneth VonRonn, was killed along with six other U.S. soldiers when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb.
The bomb exploded under the armored vehicle. Everyone inside was killed.
"We never said goodbye," Kira VonRonn said, sitting in the kitchen of her parent's home in Bloomingburg last night, tears dripping down her face and onto the table.
"He knew that he was loved," she said. "He died serving his country, which I'm very proud of him for. I wouldn't change a thing. He was a very brave individual."
Family members learned of his death early yesterday, when a military attache knocked on the door of their Bloomingburg home just after midnight.
"He wanted to be a soldier and he believed in what he was doing," said his father-in-law, Arden Conklin. "A lot of people around here knew and liked him."
VonRonn was with the 101st Cavalry Regiment from Newburgh, assigned to the 69th Infantry Regiment of the Army National Guard in Manhattan, known as the Fighting 69th.
He graduated from Pine Bush High School in 2003. He enlisted in the Army National Guard during his senior year there and was deployed to Iraq in October.
As an Army medic, VonRonn had dreams of one day becoming a pediatrician.
"He chose the Army to get an education," she said. "He loved what he was doing."
The couple were high school sweethearts who had started "dating" in the sixth grade.
He thought she was pretentious. She thought he was a troublemaker.
But eventually they fell in love. They talked of marriage and of a life together. She remembers the first time he spoke to her.
"He screamed across the parking lot, 'KJ, will you go out with me?'" she said.
They were married just over a year ago. He spent his honeymoon in basic training.
"We never got to go on a honeymoon," she said. "We were going after he got out."
VonRonn returned home briefly in November, for Thanksgiving.
"He wanted to do something good with his life, and he did," she said.
"He was a great kid," said Laurie DeGeorge, who worked with VonRonn at the A.C. Moore store in the Town of Wallkill before he joined the National Guard.
His co-workers had started putting together a care package to send to him. Before he was called to duty, VonRonn left a list of items on the wall in the break room. They were things he wanted them to send overseas.
Most of all, he wanted some pictures of snow.
"We are all devastated," DeGeorge said. "He will be missed."
The family said they don't know when his body will be returned from Iraq. Military officials are working with the family to make his funeral arrangements, she said.
"It's not something that a 20-year-old should be thinking about," Kira said.
VonRonn is the second member of the armed forces from the Hudson Valley to be killed in the past week. Marine Lance Cpl. Brian P. Parrello of West Milford, Pa., was killed Dec. 31 while on patrol in the city of Hadithah, 130 miles north of Baghdad.
Thursday's toll was the highest for the U.S. military in Iraq since a Dec. 21 suicide bombing at a mess tent in Mosul killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. soldiers.
Iraq's insurgents have frequently targeted American troops with crude explosives planted in roads and detonated remotely as patrols pass.
The latest deaths brought the number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to 1,350. At least 1,063 died as a result of hostile action.