Local man dies in Iraq Local man dies in Iraq (June 04, 2004)

Soldier was due to leave country in April

By Corey Pride

He had been fascinated by tanks since he was a little boy. No one had to tell him military service was his calling: he just knew.

On Sunday, Army Lt. Ken Ballard died doing what he loved -- serving his country. Ballard, a 26-year-old who lived in Mountain View, died in the An Najaf area of Iraq after being hit by small-arms fire. His mother was notified on Memorial Day.

"It wasn't supposed to happen," Karen Meredith, Ballard's mother, said. "He was due to leave (Iraq) in April and be here in May."

Ballard spent more than a year in Iraq and kept in regular contact with his mother through e-mail and over the phone. He was scheduled to come home last month but was given an extended-stay order that cancelled those plans. A cease-fire was established in An Najaf May 28. Two days later Ballard was killed.

Ballard often told his mother of the battles he and fellow soldiers were fighting. Meredith wanted to know of her son's activities, but she didn't want to know everything.

"When he could, he was real conscious about letting me know he was OK. They were in battles all of May, and I wanted to know what was going on but sometimes he told me too much. You can't inundate yourself or you can't go on with your life," she said.

Ballard graduated from Mountain View High School in 1995 and went straight into the armed services. His family has been in the military for four generations but no one assumed he would enlist.

"It wasn't expected of him. It was something he wanted to do," Meredith said as she began to cry.

Mountain View High School Assistant Principal Matt Neely had taught Ballard for three straight years. They kept in touch through e-mail when Ballard joined the Army and served in the Bosnian conflict.

"When he was in Kosovo, we maintained a relationship and would often debate political issues. Even though we were often on opposite sides, the debate was always lively and fun," Neely said.

He also said he still has fond memories of Ballard drawing battlefields on class assignments he would turn in.

Ballard's aunt, retired Lt. Colonel Cathy Patton, administered the oath of office to him when he first joined the armed services and a second time when he reenlisted after going to college and receiving a B.S. in international relations.

"He loved tanks his whole life. He would play with them when he was a little boy and tell me he was going to grow up and drive one." Patton said as a child "he loved when he'd see me in my uniform. I was going to send him some name tags I had because I think it would've been cool for him to have a name tag that said 'Patton' on it."

She said Ballard was very family-oriented.

"He and my daughter were more like brother and sister than cousins. When she was getting married last June, she was sad he couldn't be there," Patton said. "He called during the reception, and we were so thrilled because we were all missing him."

Ballard used to send his mother pictures from Iraq. She decided to post them on a Web site (www.mindspring.com/~karenmeredith) along with comments to her son from loved ones and well-wishers.

Meredith spent months listening to radio news in hopes of getting information about what was happening in Iraq. She called KGO to thank its staff for providing regular updates and wound up as a regular talk radio guest. She said support from people who only knew her son from what she described of him on radio was "heartwarming."

Meredith said it is easy to forget about the troops and their families if you don't have a loved one in the military, and her wish is that her son's death can increase awareness.

"I want people to know there are still 135,000 soldiers in harm's way, and we need to pray for their safe and soon return," she said.

Mountain View High School flew its flags at half-staff Tuesday and is planning to take donations to pay for planting a tree and installing a memorial plaque in Ballard's memory.

E-mail Corey Pride at cpride@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.