'I Didn't Lose A Friend, I Lost A Brother'

'I Didn't Lose A Friend, I Lost A Brother'

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Story Published: Apr 28, 2004 at 11:12 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:28 AM PDT

By Kevin Reece

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KIRKLAND - "We just felt that it was something that needed to be done. We wanted to serve our country. Just do whatever we could to help out."

That's how a close friend of 21-year-old Jake Herring described their joint decision to join the Army back in 2001 long before the attacks of September 11th. They were among several members of the Lake Washington High School football team that year who made the same decision when they graduated.

Jake Herring died April 27th in a grenade attack near Mosul, Iraq.

"He didn't want any attention. He was a soldier. He was there to do his job and he was gonna stay until his job was done," said friend and fellow soldier Dan Gillison. Gillison was a paratrooper who landed in Northern Iraq. He was also the quarterback at Lake Washington High in 2001. Herring was the starting center.

Herring became a member of the Stryker Brigade from Ft. Lewis. According to his friends he was wounded in a roadside attack just a month and a half ago and received the Purple Heart. He returned to duty and was on patrol west of Mosul when he was attacked. Three other soldiers were wounded and survived.

"Just know that he loved his family, his friends, and he loved his country at the same time," said Gillison when asked what people should think of Herring. "That he was just doing a job. He wasn't a person who wanted any type of glory. He was just doing his job."

His football coach remembers a tenacious competitor whose number 55 jersey was placed for all his students to see in the weight room Wednesday. He says he will also ask that the number be retired.

"I think it's important that people visually see what he meant to the school," said Coach Tim Tramp. "And how proud we were of him that he served the country on our behalf and ultimately sacrificed his life for us."

"He was a part of our life, not just a friend or a brother," said friend and former teammate Mick Morrison who like Gillison has known Herring since childhood.

"He doesn't just want us to stop and cry about it, mourn yes, but not just stop and break down," he said of Herring. "He wants us to keep going. Just live."

"It still hasn't sunken in yet," said friend Michael Moen. "I still expect to get a letter from him. But last night I didn't lose a friend, I lost a brother you know...that's just how I feel."

Coach Tramp says that from that football team that year four of his players have served in Iraq. Two are still there and two more in training to go.

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