Stephen V Long

Major, United States Army - and a war hero long before that morning.

He enlisted in July 1981 and went through infantry training and the basic airborne course at Fort Benning, and was posted to the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Infantry - the Rangers - at Fort Lewis.

In October 1983, as a specialist, he parachuted onto Grenada in Operation Urgent Fury. He came back with the Army Commendation Medal for valour and the Purple Heart.

He was then chosen for a three-year ROTC scholarship and discharged to take it, read sociology at Augusta State, and was commissioned in November 1989 into the Quartermaster Corps. He was a platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg and deployed to Saudi Arabia in August 1990 for Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and came back to be a company executive officer and then an assistant brigade logistics officer.

He passed the combined logistics officer advanced course in 1995, served as a battalion logistics officer and commanded a company of the 601st Aviation Support Battalion at Katterbach in Germany, and came to Total Army Personnel Command in April 1998 as an assignment officer and later secretary of the general staff. He was promoted major on the first of November 2000.

He wore the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Ranger tab and parachutist wings.

His wife Tina and his stepsons David and Tryon Hopkins.