We remember Blake Pospisil

© 2004 PostStar Productions, Photo by Peter Galli

In early 2004, three teams worked successfully together in Palau under occasionally trying circumstances: the BentProp team, a JPAC recovery team, and the SeaBees. Toward the end of our trip, the three teams assembled for an all-too-brief final gathering, pictured above. We all got along incredibly well in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect - and best of all, we all really LIKED each other.

One of the brightest, most competent, and friendliest people among the three teams was SSgt Kenneth B. "Blake" Pospisil, USMC, JPAC's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist (center, in the photo above).

Blake had a deceptively easygoing style, but it was clear that he took very seriously the job of keeping us safe in some pretty hair-raising environments, including the unexploded-ordnance-strewn valleys of Peleliu. Doing the things that we do, we occasionally find ourselves needing to trust our lives to the judgment of other team members. That trust was well placed in Blake.

Blake left JPAC in early 2005 for a new assignment with the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

On 14 December 2005, he was killed in action in ar-Ramadi, Iraq.

For more photos and a video clip in tribute to Blake, go to http://www.bentstarproject.org/blake-tribute/.

Page last modified 8 April 2007