Demetrius Lamont Rice trained to be a chef and studied computer graphics, but he joined the Army when he failed to find a job in either of those fields. Valorie Rice said her son believed in his country, and "He just wanted to do something with his life." Rice, 24, was killed July 14 in a vehicle rollover near Talafar in northern Iraq. He was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash. While her son was in Iraq, Valorie Rice would use three-way calling to link up Rice with other relatives, and they would "try to keep his spirits up," she said. She remembers the last time she spoke with her son. "He sounded down. I think he was tired of being over there," she said. "He was ready to come home, like a lot of them. But he knew why he was there, why this needed to be done."
Demetrius Lamont Rice trained to be a chef and studied computer graphics, but he joined the Army when he failed to find a job in either of those fields. Valorie Rice said her son believed in his country, and "He just wanted to do something with his life." Rice, 24, was killed July 14 in a vehicle rollover near Talafar in northern Iraq. He was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash. While her son was in Iraq, Valorie Rice would use three-way calling to link up Rice with other relatives, and they would "try to keep his spirits up," she said. She remembers the last time she spoke with her son. "He sounded down. I think he was tired of being over there," she said. "He was ready to come home, like a lot of them. But he knew why he was there, why this needed to be done."
