James J. Coon went to war as a way to better his life, hoping to use his soldier's pay to one day buy a house. Once in Iraq, he was recognized for his heroism after he jumped from his Humvee in an effort to save two fellow soldiers seriously injured in a roadside bomb explosion. Then, his family says, a sniper's bullet took his life. The 22-year-old Army Specialist from Walnut Creek, CA was killed April 4, 2007 while on patrol in Balad, north of Baghdad. The Department of Defense initially listed his cause of death as a roadside bomb explosion. But a Colonel in Coon's unit called the family from Iraq to explain that their son had been shot in the head. The soldier's father, Jim, described his son as an outgoing youth who loved hip-hop music and dancing, and excelled in football and darts. Coon had won a national steel-tip dart championship in 2001 and traveled to England as a 16-year-old to represent the United States. He finished fifth. At 6 feet 6, with a size 14 1/2 shoe, Coon also was a punter on his high school and college football teams. His real love, his father said, was popping wheelies on his motorcycle. "He was a good athlete as tall as he was," his father said. "He could ride his motorcycle doing a wheelie from one county to the next, even using one hand. He was a happy-go-lucky and free-spirited kid without a care in the world. He made friends very easily. It was uncanny how easily he could do that." Pat Lickiss, retired Principal of Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, said Coon was a "kid who always had a smile on his face. He was a really nice young man. And you can't say that about all kids these days. But you can about James." 
"Dad, they're calling me a hero, but all I did was what I thought was right. A lot of kids would have done the same thing. " James J. Coon, Army Specialist Awarded the Bronze Star for Valor
Obituary information from the LA Times
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