An Alabama man, who served 20 years in the United States Army, died last week in a Texas crash.
Jeremy Brooks Puryear died June 19 after an early-morning crash in Belton, Texas, KWTXreported. The local station said Puryear died after his car went off the roadway and crashed into the fence of a temporary construction storage area.
Puryear was born in Decatur, according to his obituary, and served more than two decades in the Army. The 41-year-old completed tours in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. He was living in of Killeen, Texas, with his wife and son.
The veteran was a lover of Alabama football and enjoyed grilling on the weekends, his obituary in the Temple Daily Telegram said. Puryear “was a brave and dedicated soldier, as well as a patient and loving husband and father,” the obituary said, and had been married for 19 years. He had been working at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Medical Center in Temple, Texas, since 2017.
“Most of all he loved dachshunds and leaves behind his four beloved wiener dogs: Buster Brown, Freedom, Jack, and Astro,” the obituary noted.
Funeral arrangements were announced for this week in Texas, but the veteran will be buried in Montevallo at the Alabama National Cemetery.
The veteran said on his LinkedIn page: “I have served in the Army from Aug 1996 until Oct 2016. I have had the privilege of working with Wounded Warriors at a Warrior Transition Unit, teaching as an instructor, serving the public as a Patient Advocate in an Army hospital and currently serving as the Platoon Sergeant of an amazing group of Soldiers. I have been on two combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan (both extended past 12 months), one peace keeping operation in Bosnia, and one deterrent rotation to South Korea. I wouldn’t change a thing over the past 20 years, except bringing back the Soldiers and friends I have lost over the years, that I wish I could change.”
According to Puryear’s obituary, flowers may be sent to 425 E. Central Expressway, Harker Heights, Texas. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked donations be sent to the Diamond Dachshund Rescue of Texas.
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