Army Sgt. Thomas Turner Jr., 31, Cottonwood; Dies of Injuries in Roadside Blast

Thomas B. Turner Jr. had cherished motorcycles since he was so little that his dad had to remove the seat from a miniYamaha so his son’s legs could reach the foot pegs.

More than a decade after his father died, Turner, a 31-year-old Army sergeant, had taken his father’s Harley from the West Coast to the Kentucky base where he was stationed. Turner was to return this month from his second stint in Iraq, and his mother told friends that he planned to hop on the bike first thing.

Turner, however, died July 14 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries suffered a day earlier when his Bradley fighting vehicle ran over a roadside bomb in Muqdadiya, north of Baghdad.

He was buried next to his father, Thomas B. Turner Sr., at a cemetery in Cottonwood, the Northern California town where he and his wife, Jennifer, planned to raise their 21-month-old son, Ethan, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Cantrell. The Harley was returned to California -- a keepsake from a father to his children.

“There was no stopping him from joining the military,” said family friend Cindy Lopes-Sykes of Concord, Calif. “That is what he wanted to do -- help people. He gave his life and he didn’t have to go, but he wanted to.”

Growing up in San Francisco, a bashful Turner played checkers and helped his dad tinker with motorcycles. “Him and his dad were inseparable,” Lopes-Sykes said. “There was a bond and a strength between them.”

She said the Turners moved to seven-plus acres in Cottonwood when the elder Turner and his wife, Frances, a nurse, decided that their son would best become a man in ranching and timber country. Soon after, Turner entered Mercy Catholic High School in nearby Red Bluff.

Turner’s father, who suffered from heart problems, died just before his son graduated in 1992. His only child put college on the back burner and took over the family business of trucking logs to lumber mills. A soft-spoken man who detailed most days in a journal, Turner had a daredevil streak: going skydiving, hiking and camping and earning a black belt in karate.

In 2000, Turner began dating his future wife -- a match made at the martial arts studio in Red Bluff where he engaged in rigorous, twice-a-day workouts. Her older sister, Meredith Coghlan, had seen Turner at the studio where her son took classes and fixed up Turner with her sister.

Soon after, Turner sold the trucking business and enrolled at Cal State Chico to study political science and international relations. “He had a brain and he wanted to use it,” Coghlan said.

Turner entered boot camp in January 2003. He told friends that it felt like a calling, and that it would help with college tuition and boost his chances of working for the California Highway Patrol.

Four months later, he got married. The Turners honeymooned in Hawaii, a brief respite before he left for a nine-month stint in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Ky. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team.

During his second tour, which was set to end this month, his wife was markedly anxious, Coghlan said, despite e-mails and phone calls from her husband. The couple mainly chatted about their future in Cottonwood, how the children were doing and the home they planned to build on his parents’ lot. In turn, his wife mailed him videotapes of Ethan and Sarah. “He was not only my husband but truly my best friend,” she told mourners at his funeral, according to the Red Bluff Daily News.

Turner had doted on Sarah, guiding her through homework and playing the game Memory as many times as she wanted. He sent her a birthday card early in July, even though she didn’t turn 8 until month’s end -- Turner wanted to make sure it arrived on time. After his death, Coghlan said, “My sister had to explain to my niece that Daddy is sleeping and he won’t wake up. Sarah’s comment was, ‘Does this mean he won’t e-mail me back?’ ”