Mark C. Paine

Captain Mark Paine served as the S4 Officer of 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry
under LTC Steve Russell for nearly a year, starting in the summer of 2004,
until he became Commanding Officer of Bravo Company 1-66th Armor, in March of 2005.

Captain Mark C. Paine, 32, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, died October 15, 2006, in Taji, Iraq, from injuries suffered
when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.Paine was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment,
1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

PAINE, MARK CHRISTOHER
CPT US ARMY
DATE OF BIRTH: 06/26/1974
DATE OF DEATH: 10/15/2006
BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 8434
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Captain Mark Christopher Paine was born on June 26, 1974, in San Francisco, California.

Captain Paine entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1993. Captain Paine attended Airborne School in 1995
and graduated from West Point in May 1997. Upon graduation Captain Paine attended the Infantry Officer’s Basic Course at Fort Bennning, Georgia.
While at Fort Benning he also graduated from the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle Commander’s Course. Captain Paine then attended
Air Assault School at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

On May 14, 1998, Captain Paine was assigned as a Rifle Platoon Leader, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 503rd Air Assault,
at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, South Korea. Captain Paine was then assigned as a Liaison Officer Team Leader at Camp Red Cloud
in Uijeongbu, South Korea, on October 15, 1998. On June 15, 1999, Captain Paine was assigned as a Rifle Platoon Leader, Delta Company,
2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, at Fort Stewart, Georgia. On February 1, 2000, Captain Paine assumed the role of S-1 Battalion Adjutant,
Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment. On March 2, 2001, Captain Paine assumed the role of S-5
Civil Military Operation Officer, Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, while deployed in Yugoslavia.
On July 8, 2002, Captain Paine arrived at Fort Hood and was assigned to Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 4th Infantry Division,
where he served as the Assistant G-3 Training. While serving as the Assistant G-3, Captain Paine deployed in support of OIF I. On July 3, 2003,
Captain Paine assumed the role of Assistant S-3, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. After being redeployed Captain Paine was assigned
as the Battalion S-4 Logistics Officer in Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade,
4th Infantry Division. On March 15, 2005, Captain Paine assumed command of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment,
1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. On December 14, 2005, Captain Paine deployed with the Bayonets to Camp Taji, Iraq, in support of OIF 05-07.

Captain Paine was killed in action on October 15, 2006, while commanding his company on Route Coyotes.

Captain Paine’s awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal,
the Army Commendation Medal with Silver Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Achievement Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters,
the National Defense Service Medal with Star, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Kosovo Campaign Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal,
the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal,
the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon with Numeral 4 Device, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Expert Infantryman Badge,
the Air Assault Badge, and the Parachutist Badge.

Los Angeles Times

Army Capt. Mark C. Paine, 32, Rancho Cucamonga; killed in roadside bombing

Now that her son is gone, a particular memory about him stands out in Kairyn Paine's mind.

The two had sat down to eat lunch at a local joint near their home in Lafayette, Calif., east of Berkeley. She asked Mark what he wanted to do
with his life. He thought for a moment and said he wanted to spend a few years in the Army, just like his father.

"I said to him, 'Mark, do you know what that means? You could be killed,' " she recalled. "He looked up at me and said,
'Mom, there are worse ways to die than fighting for your country.' " Mark was 7 that day.

Twenty-five years later, 32-year-old Army Capt. Mark C. Paine was killed Oct. 15 when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee
in Taji, Iraq, north of Baghdad. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at Ft. Hood, Texas.
Paine was among 10 California troops killed in October -- one of the bloodiest months for U.S. forces since the war began in 2003.

"He was a warrior," said Paine's father, Roger, who served in Vietnam as an Army officer. "He absolutely lived the life he wanted to live.
He died doing exactly what he wanted to do."

Paine's parents and friends remembered a generous and caring man who was fiercely determined to take care of the roughly 150 men under his command.

While home on leave from his first deployment to Iraq, Paine flew around the country visiting the wives and children of soldiers in his company
who had been killed. He also spent $18,000 of his own money buying Christmas presents and helping the families to pay bills, his mother said.

It was that dedication that led to Paine's death.

When told that one of his units was engaged in intense fighting, Paine insisted that he leave the hospital bed where he had been recuperating
from a concussion suffered two days earlier from another makeshift bomb. He assembled a relief convoy of four Humvees and set out for Taji.
The bomb that killed him detonated as the convoy turned a corner with Paine's vehicle at the front.

"Mark was raised that you do not set yourself apart or above," his mother said. "You get in with your men and you go together....
His loyalty was to his men. He would have done anything for them."

Paine earned the Bronze Star for valor twice during his first tour in Iraq but refused to tell his mother what he had done to earn them.
In Iraq since last December on his second deployment, he was scheduled to return home in less than a month, she said.

Paine was an avid outdoorsman and accomplished Eagle Scout. After his parents moved to Rancho Cucamonga a few years ago,
he enjoyed visiting and playing golf with his father.

Paine attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and then went on to earn a graduate degree in history from the University of Maryland.
He had hoped to return to West Point someday to teach future soldiers.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

The grave marker of Captain Mark Paine

in Arlington Cemetery

Photograph by

LTC Steve Russell USA (Retired)