An Army team carries the remains of Army Spc. Julian L. Berisford Nov. 6 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Berisford was stationed at Fort Richardson Army Base. (Upper right), Berisford. Associated press photo/Steve Ruark

Specialist Julian L. Berisford, 25, a paratrooper from Fort Richardson died in the Bermal District of Paktika, Afghanistan, Nov. 4.

Berisford of Benwood, W.Va., was killed by a rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire while on a patrol.

He was an infantryman assigned to C Company, 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, home-based at Fort Richardson.

Berisford joined the Army in August 2007 and served at Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Bragg, N.C. before being assigned to the Airborne Brigade at Fort Richardson in August 2008. The brigade deployed to Afghanistan in February and March 2009.

Berisford, a 2002 graduate of John Marshall High School, married Gina Berisford on New Years' Eve in 2007, and was preparing to come home to celebrate the first birthday of his 11-month-old daughter, Mya.

The father and husband is now being remembered by family and friends as a hero who loved life.

Specialist Julian L. Berisford

"It's like our heart has been torn out," Berisford's cousin, Randi Jo Chavanak told the Wheeling News-Register. "The only thing he said before he left was that he was going to do things right for families like ours. He was going to fight for families. He was so proud, just the proudest soldier there was. He was a hero."

As of Friday 833 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. Of those, the military reports 640 were killed by hostile action.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Wednesday, November 11, 2009.