Fort Drum honors fallen soldier

FORT DRUM — Cpl. Paul L. Lancaster remembered his friend Spc. James A. Waters, 21, of Cloverdale, Ind., during a Memorial Park ceremony Thursday.

The two were serving with the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team in Afghanistan on July 1 when Spc. Waters was killed by an improvised explosive device. The corporal escorted the remains home to Indiana and, at the ceremony, remembered Spc. Waters as an outstanding soldier and a great friend.

Spc. Waters arrived at Fort Drum last year and, Cpl. Lancaster said, his hard work and motivation caused him to quickly move up the ranks. But his work ethic didn’t define him.

“Being a great soldier was only a part of the man Spc. Waters was,” Cpl. Lancaster said. ”He was one of the greatest friends anybody could ever ask for.”

The specialist was fun to be with, he said, and easy to talk to, and everyone in the company loved him.

“You could always count on Jimmy to cheer you up,” he said.

When the corporal learned of Spc. Waters’s death, he took it hard.

“As a soldier, we all know what could happen, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to see or hear about your friends getting hurt or killed,” he said. “When you make friends in the Army, they become more than just a friend; they become a brother, and that’s what Jimmy was to me.”

Spc. Waters was the eighth soldier killed since the brigade left for its deployment.