Ashley Ford celebrated her second birthday yesterday as her family grieved her father's death in a combat mission in Iraq.
Marine Corps Capt. Travis Ford, 30, was stationed at Camp Pendleton and lived in Oceanside with his wife, Deon, and their daughter.
"He said, 'I'm not afraid of dying, but I know I will miss my wife and daughter,'" Craig Condello, a relative, recalled of Ford's reflections before he was deployed.
Ford died Friday when a Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed in the darkness southeast of Baghdad after taking out a target.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, but some news reports have indicated it may not have been caused by enemy fire.
"We had a conversation in January prior to his deployment," Condello said. "He said, 'I was born to do this. I see this as an opportunity to protect you, protect my family, my country and fight for freedom.' He is a Nebraska hero."
Ford, a native of Ogallala, Neb., graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
The fourth of five children, Ford followed in older brother Alex's footsteps when he chose to be a Marine. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from high school and joined the officer candidate program in college, said Alex Ford, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve and an FBI agent in San Diego.
In college, Travis was known as the fearless but humble guy with the big smile, and the "one-man moving van" who used his pickup to help his college friends move, Condello said.
He was a running back at Ogallala High School and a boxing champion in University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Greek Fight Night, winning the most outstanding fighter honor two years in a row, Condello said.
"He brought the hand-eye coordination and courage to get in the ring and the football field to the battlefield," he said.
As a member of the college Yell Squad – the cheerleading team – Ford was always the first on the field to charge up spectators, Condello said.
During halftime at one football game, Ford asked his team members to hold up a sign that said, "Deon, will you marry me?" while he yelled on the megaphone, "What do you say?"
Then he ran up the stands, got on his knees and gave her a ring.
Yesterday, Ford's family remembered him by throwing a party for Ashley, just as Ford would have done.
– By Angela Lau
