WEST MILFORD Staff Sgt. Jason Butkus, 34, was killed in Iraq on Thursday, August 30, from injuries sustained when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his Humvee. Butkus grew up in West Milford and is a 1991 graduate of WMHS. From the time he was child, he wanted to serve in the military. Under his senior yearbook picture, he listed “armed forces” as his future. After a stint in the National Guard, Jason enlisted in the army in 1995. In a letter to a friend, he expressed his feelings about finally being in the army: “You ask how Army life is. Well, it’s pretty great as far as I’m concerned. We got our dress green uniforms the other day and had a weekend pass on Easter weekend. While I was crossing the road to get to my hotel a lady almost got into an accident while trying to get onto the highway because she stopped to wish my buddies and me a Happy Easter. That made me feel like a Soldier for the first time and to feel like I achieved something that I’ve wanted all my life. I can’t describe how it felt, but it was a hell of a good feeling.” During Butkus’s 12-year distinguished army career he moved around quite a bit he was stationed in places as far flung as Korea and Alaska before he was deployed in January from Kansas to Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. Butkus was on the wrestling and track team when he was in high school. Physical Education Teacher and Wrestling Coach Mike Blakely remembered him, “He was a hardworking, quiet and reserved kid who always put forth his best... I’m proud of him, and grateful, and sad.” Blakely said it was a particularly somber day on Tuesday (the first school day for staff) in the high school. He worked at The Pizza Place after school, where he met lifelong friend Christine (Raue) Pasquariello. “Some of my fondest memories of working with Jay were during the lulls in a shift. In between preparing meals, Jay would often help me with my homework. He was an avid reader. I learned how to interpret Shakespeare English from Jay. He also gave me countless pieces of advice about things like boyfriends and typical adolescent issues,” she said. “He was chivalrous.” One of his neighbors who lives up the road from Butkus’s childhood home remembered him coming by with various fundraisers from Cub Scouts and other activities, “He was just a little guy at the time but I always remember him as such a nice and polite fellow one of the good guys.” The soldier leaves behind a nine-year-old son, Connor Butkus and former wife Amanda of Fairbanks, Alaska. He is also survived by his mother, Cheryl Bohn, and stepfather, Edward Bohn, of Old Bridge; his father, Michael Butkus, of Houston, Texas; two sisters, Tonya, of West Milford, and Vanessa, of Bloomingdale, and three nieces. Butkus is the second West Milford native to have given his life in the war. Brian P. Parrello, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, was slain just a week short of his 20th birthday in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on Jan. 1, 2005. Butkus is the 82nd soldier from New Jersey lost in Iraq. Memorial service Saturday, September 8 2 p.m. Elks Lodge Union Valley Rd. West Milford