Rancho graduate dies in Iraq war

Jace Radke

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 | 11 a.m.

Amanda Weber remembers her brother as a kind-hearted man that couldn't stop from helping people or animals.

"He just had a huge heart, and he'd give his shirt of his back if someone needed it," Weber said of her brother Army Staff Sgt. Donald Griffith Jr., who was killed in Iraq on March 11.

Griffith, 29, was a member of the Army's Stryker Brigade, 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, and grew up in Las Vegas.

A 1994 graduate of Rancho High School, Griffith wanted to be a veterinarian, and had spent the last nine years in the Army, Weber said.

Weber said that Army officials told her family that Griffith was killed shielding his unit from enemy machine gun fire.

"He always wanted to keep everyone out of harm's way and he was always concerned for his men," Weber said.

Griffith, who loved animals and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, was buried in Mechanicsville, Iowa, on March 21, Weber said.

Griffith and his family moved from Las Vegas to Mechanicsville shortly after he finished high school, and he joined the Army while living in Iowa. He married Stacy Paup of Mechanicsville in 1997, Weber said.

While going to high school at Rancho, Griffith was a member of the Junior ROTC program.

In addition to Griffith, 12 servicemen from Nevada and an Airman stationed at Nellis Air Force Base have been killed in Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan since fighting began in late 2001 in Afghanistan.