Army Staff Sgt. Scates was assigned to 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia. Scates died from wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device when clearing a building during combat operations in Arab Jabour. He was following two snipers when he kicked in a door that was boobytrapped. From the time Danny was 5 or 6 years old, he dreamed of being a soldier. He became an Eagle Scout and was also a member of the Young Marines and the Explorers. After graduating from Western Heights High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, he joined the Oklahoma National Guard. After leaving the Guard, he and his wife Raquel, moved to Oklahoma City where he did private security work but after the September 11 terrorist attacks he re-enlisted. Danny felt that stopping the terrorism over there was the best way to keep this country safe. He went back into the Army and went into the infantry this time. After serving a tour of duty in Bosnia, he was killed during his third deployment to Iraq. Danny didn't have a good feeling about going on this third tour and told family members he didn't think he'd come back alive, but he was a brave man who loved his country and the Army and felt he needed to go. Just a few weeks before he was killed, Danny took shrapnel in the face and side when a roadside bomb exploded while he was on foot patrol. After only three days of rest, he was back on patrol. During a phone call to his wife a few days before his death, he talked about how different this tour was. It was more dangerous – almost on a daily basis they were getting injured or someone was dying. Danny was funny, good looking, and loved to mentor the younger soldiers under him. Before his last deployment, he told his wife that he wanted to be buried at the Fort Bliss Cemetery so he would be near her and their two daughters.