Grass, Zachary A.

Zachary A. Grass

Beach City, Ohio

Feather Location: Row N, #06

The Associated Press

BEACH CITY, Ohio — A 22-year-old soldier from northeast Ohio was killed in Iraq in a roadside bombing of his vehicle, his father said…

 “We had gone to a car show [June 16],” Frank Grass said. “When we returned home, that’s when the military was here.” …

Zachary Grass was a 2003 graduate of Fairless High School, where he played guard on the basketball team and pitched and played third base in baseball. “He was a kid always willing to do whatever it took to help the team, a pretty selfless kid,” said basketball coach Matt Kramer, who learned June 17 of Grass’ death. “You study wars in books and you don’t get the personal side because fatalities become statistics. But it hits home that these are real people when somebody calls you on a Sunday afternoon and tells you one of your former players died in Iraq,” Kramer said.

Grass enlisted in the Army in 2005 and was stationed in Fort Lewis, Wash., as part of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Earlier this year while on leave from the Army, Grass visited his former high school teachers and coaches. “I said, ‘Good luck and stay safe,’ ” former baseball coach David Fogle said. “I was very proud to hear he went into the service.”

Carver:  Jim Fields has been carving for 15 years on and off and is from Wakeman, Ohio.

Wood:  Basswood