COAL TOWNSHIP — Robert Fisher’s mind was wandering Thursday night, two days after his son, Army Pfc. James Yohn, was killed in Iraq.
“This makes you think,” Mr. Fisher said, as he sat on his living room couch, sipping an iced tea and smoking a cigarette.
He wondered aloud about the state of the country, of the world, about how human lives these days seem to be worth less than dollars and cents. But mostly, he thought about his 25-year-old son, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Mosul Tuesday.
“Jimmy was one that always pitched in. Always had a smile on his face,” Mr. Fisher said. “He loved life.”
Yohn was a volunteer firefighter with the Highspire Fire Company in Dauphin County. His wife, Amber, is about to give birth to the couple’s first son — James Yohn Jr. — in a few weeks, Mr. Fisher said.
Yohn was supposed to return home to Highspire in February, his father said.
“He’s not coming home now,” Fisher said.
Mr. Fisher and his wife, Julia Ann, reminisced about Yohn. He was a great cook, they said, and an even better eater. He loved to fish and hunt. Mrs. Fisher recalled, with a smile, the time she pulled his baggy pants down at a family gathering just to embarrass him.
“Jimmy was from the ’hood,” his father said. “He wore the turkey pants hanging down.”
For a while, when he was younger, “Jimmy had a rough life,” Mr. Fisher said. “He straightened his life out through the military.”
Yohn enlisted in the Army out of a sense of civic responsibility, but also out of a deep, abiding faith in God, Mr. Fisher said. “He believed in a good and loving God, and I’m sure he’s OK. We’re still here to deal with it. He died doing what he loved.”
The Fishers aren’t angry though. Thursday night they seemed, if anything, just tired and sad.
“I feel sorry for every mother, wife, child, who’s lost someone in this stinking war,” said Mrs. Fisher, who worries about her eldest son, Tracy, suffering the same fate if he returns to Iraq.
“I do try to block it out,” she said. “I still think about it every day, because I know (he) is going to go back.”
Mr. Fisher said he has bad dreams too. But one thought comforts him.
“It’s strange,” he said. “I think of Jim. I can see him in my mind’s eye, and I feel this peace, and I know he’s OK.”
n E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.
The Valley’s fallen
A list of deaths of military personnel in Iraq with ties to the Valley:
June 24, 2008: Army Pfc. James Yohn, 25, of Highspire. Killed after a roadside bomb exploded in Mosul. He is the son of Robert Fisher, of Coal Township, and Judy Yohn, of Highspire.
Jan. 24, 2007: Army Sgt. 1st Class Keith A. Callahan, 31, of McClure. Killed after an improvised explosive device detonated while he was on combat patrol south of Baghdad.
Sept. 2, 2006: Army Pfc. Justin Dreese, 21, Freeburg. Killed on a rooftop in enemy territory from mortar fire in Yusifiyah, Iraq.
Jan. 24, 2005: Army Sgt. Brett Swank, 21, Northumberland. Killed while on foot patrol when an improvised explosion device went off in western Baghdad.
July 19, 2004: Army Sgt. Dale T. Lloyd, 22, Watsontown. Killed when multiple mortar rounds hit his forward operating base in Scandaria, Anbar province.
May 30, 2004: Army Capt. Robert C. Scheetz Jr., 31, of Dotham, Ala., 1990 Shamokin Area High School graduate. Killed following a car bombing in Musayyib.
March 20, 2004: Army Spc. Matthew J. Sandri, 24, Shamokin. Killed in a rocket attack in Fallujah.
May 30, 2003: Army Spc. Zachariah M. Long, 20, Milton. Killed between Mosul and Tikrit during a vehicle accident.
May 27, 2003: Army Staff Sgt. Michael B. Quinn, 37, Tampa, Fla., 1984 Line Mountain High School graduate. Killed by assailants while guarding a checkpoint in Fallujah.
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