[Editor’s note: SFC Jeffrey Brundage is a dedicated patriot, having serving with the US Army for the past 19 years. A 1990 graduate of Honesdale High School, the Honesdale resident is currently stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.]
We had the privilege of talking with SFC Brundage after meeting his mom at the Vietnam Traveling Wall in Hawley. Sue Lewis was searching the Cost of Freedom Memorial, scanning the engraved gold dog tags for the names of her son’s four friends — best friends who gave their lives in service to our Country.   
  We asked SFC Brundage if he’d like to tell us about those four men of honor. He instantly shot back an e-mail, offering a window to who they were, how they touched his life and the difference they made for America. The men who gave the ultimate sacrifice: CPT. Erick M. Foster, SSG Christopher S. Kiernan, SGT Richard A. Vaughn, and SGT Michael Barrera.]
CPT. Erick M. Foster
I met Erick when I was a Tank Commander in mid 2001. He was a newly commissioned 2nd Lt. and was assigned to be my platoon leader. It turned out to be that Erick would be my “wing man,” meaning I was his partner, his shadow; a tank never went any place by itself, like a fighter pilot always has a “wing man.” Erick is from a small town north of Pittsburgh, so that made me happy to have another Steelers fan around. When we were in the field I would bring a portable radio to listen to the football games, I would send him updates over our tank radio. Like Chris, Erick was a lovable guy. His parents did an awesome job raising him. He had the best manners of a gentleman. Whenever he came to visit my home, he would bring something. I would tease him because when he would come over he would bring a gallon of milk. 
Erick and I spent a little over a year together with him being my boss. Shortly before we were deployed to Iraq in 2003, we were both assigned to new jobs within the battalion. In 2007, he became a Company Commander with the 82nd Airborne division and he deployed to Iraq for his second tour. I had just got back to Fort Hood and in August of 2007 I was with my unit conducting our final training for deployment at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California. I was out on a patrol with my platoon conducting a mock traffic control point.  While you are at the training facility, you are not allowed cell phones. This day my gut told me to take mine with me. I received a voice message from a friend, CPT Frank Brooks; he just left a message saying to give him a call as soon as possible. I knew something was wrong because he said Jeff instead of his version of Jeffrey. I did not call him, I called my wife. When she heard my voice, she started crying. She told me that we lost another friend.
On August 29, 2007 Erick was killed in action by a sniper.  When I got off the phone with Kristen, I closed my phone, got out of my truck and walked out into the California desert; I fell to my knees and cried. I remember thinking, not another friend, Two different people, two different areas of Iraq. I felt my world was crashing. Erick also had made a huge impact on my life. From the time he became my platoon leader, until the day he was killed, even now. I remember yelling at him for making mistakes as a young leader because he never liked to listen to my advice during training and when he finally did he joked and said. “Man I should have listened to SSG B.” And I would say to him, “in time Sir, you are going to be a fine officer someday”.