Fallen soldier honored at Fort Lewis

FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- His platoon remembers him as a man with a big heart that never quit.

Staff Sgt. David Gutierrez was killed Christmas Day when a rooftop bomb exploded while he was on patrol at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.

"I've come to realize that his story is not the story of one man, but the story of our battalion," Cpt. Drew Schaub said during a memorial service for Gutierrez on Monday.

On his second deployment, Gutierrez became the 30th member of the Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade to die in Afghanistan since July.

"It's going to be hard for all of us to be on patrol and to turn around and not see him walking behind us," said Sfc. Darrell Rowe. "But I know he is looking down on us, holding his little baby girl with the biggest smile on his face, keeping us safe."

Three more American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Monday morning, but no information about their units or hometowns has been released.

General Stanley McChrystal maintains an optimistic view and says the additional 30,000 troops in the coming surge will win the war, and make the region safer.

Gutierrez with his family in June 2009.

"I believe that we have changed the way we operate in Afghanistan," McChrystal said. "We've changed some of our structures. And I believe tat we are on the way to convincing the Afghan people that we are here to protect them."

Fort Lewis soldiers will most likely be on the front lines.

They were reminded Monday that there will be more sacrifices, and Gutierrez's platoon was asked to carry on his legacy and never quit.

"Is there any man here that can't picture that beaming smile of (Gutierrez)?" Schaub said. "That smile was the picture of a legionnaire's positive attitude in the face of daunting challenges and hardships."

Gutierrez is survived by his wife and three young sons. He lost a daughter shortly after she was born.