'He meant a lot fighting for freedom and things that make America what it is. 'He was a hometown kid and everybody was proud of him,' Harrison resident Dan Wilhelm said. He was assigned to Troop I, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas, and deployed in 2010 to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn. He helped us get through hard times.'įriese, a 2007 graduate of Harrison High School, was named Hero of The Year for 2008 for rescuing Hunt and joined the military the following year as an M1 armor crewman. 'He was put here to care, protect and keep us together. He was a brother, a father, an uncle and a best buddy,' longtime friend Ron Frazier told the newspaper. 'There is nothing bad you can say about Robert. Yellow balloons were released into the sky as the procession passed. Trees along the route were adorned in yellow ribbons. He died April 29 after his unit was attacked by insurgents with a rocket-propelled grenade in Al Qadisiyah province in Iraq. Hundreds of people in the town, about 60 miles northwest of Saginaw, gathered Saturday along the funeral procession route for the 21-year-old Friese.

A lot of people would have seen a fire and kept going. There aren't many people like him anymore. 'They weren't able to carry me so they dragged me out then carried me down a snowy icy hill and gave me their jackets as the ambulance and fire department came,' Ethel Hunt told the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant Saturday. Robert Friese was a hero twice over.įriese and a friend pulled a neighbor from a burning house as a teen in 2008, a year before he enlisted in the military.

To residents in the small mid-Michigan community of Harrison, Army Pfc. assigned to 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas died April 29 in Kut, Iraq, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket-propelled grenade.Ĭommunity turns out for funeral of slain soldier Friese Died ApServing During Operation New DawnĢ1, of Chesterfield, Mich.

A new dawn troop trees