Army Maj. Bauguess was assigned to the
4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd
Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as an operations officer.
Bauguess died in Teri Mengel, Pakistan, when hit by enemy small arms
fire, according to an Army release, as he and others were leaving a
meeting of officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO. The meeting
was held in an effort to ease tension following recent clashes between
Afghan and Pakistani forces.
Larry went to Appalachian State University to play baseball but
when that didn't work out, he noticed a group of ROTC cadets rappelling
off the side of the gym and knew that was for him. He joined the ROTC
program and never looked back. In 1993 he graduated and received his
commission in July 1993.
Larry was the silent type who would lead from the front and work
from before sunrise until late into the night. It was this attention to
detail that helped prepare his unit so thoroughly that he never lost a
soldier during the five months of deployment.
His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star medal with
one oak leaf cluster, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal
with two oak leaf |
clusters, the Army Commend-ation Medal
with one oak leaf cluster, the Army Achievement Medal with two oak leaf
clusters, the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, the National Defense Service
Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal,
the Iraq Campaign medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary
Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the
Overseas Service Ribbon, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Expert
Infantryman Badge, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Air Assault Badge
and the Ranger Tab.
Larry was a loving husband and father who would play tic-tac-toe
with his young daughters over email. He would put the game on a Power
Point slide, fill in his move and then e-mail it off to them. Then the
next day he would get e-mail back with their moves filled in.
A week before he was killed, his unit was on a humanitarian mission
– putting clothes on children who had little or nothing of their own.
When Larry was killed, he was where he wanted to be – next to his
commander, on the ground, in the fight. If he knew the meeting would
turn out the way it did, he would have gone anyway. That's just the type
of man and soldier Larry was. |
(courtesy of Scenic Memorial Cemetery)
Grave marker for Major Larry J. Bauguess in the Scenic Memorial Gardens,
Wilkesboro (Wilkes County), North Carolina.
Major Bauguess was a member of the 4th Brigade Combat
Team, 508th PIR. He was killed by small-arm fire n Teri Mengel,
Pakistan |