BROKEN ARROW, Okla.—A U.S. Army soldier from Broken Arrow has died after his military vehicle rolled off a collapsed road in Iraq and into a canal.
Cpl. Stephen Zapasnik was one of three soldiers killed in the accident Wednesday in southern Iraq, according to his mother, Chris Zapasnik. The Defense Department has confirmed the three deaths, but has not released the soldiers’ names.
“He said, ‘Mom, if I ever don’t come back, you know I will always be with you, and I will be with Jesus, and I will be fine,'” Chris Zapasnik told the Tulsa World. “I know that he’s perfectly safe and spending Christmas up there with Jesus.”
Zapasnik said her 19-year-old son was due to return home for his mid-tour leave on Jan. 15. He last spoke with the family on Dec. 17 to check on his ailing father, Gary, who has been hospitalized.
His condition would have allowed Zapasnik to take an early leave.
“I was afraid if I did (have him come home) that I would wreck his rhythm over there and cause him to get hurt,” Chris Zapasnik told the newspaper.
Funeral services are not yet finalized, but Zapasnik said her son will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Zapasnik was in the Bravo Battery, 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment stationed at Fort Carson, Colo. He and two other men were riding in a humvee when part of a road collapsed, sending the vehicle into a canal, his mother said, relaying the details provided by her son’s company commander. All three men were dead when they were pulled from the water several minutes after the crash.
Army representatives wearing dress greens arrived at the family’s home in Broken Arrow later Wednesday to deliver the news.
Zapasnik said her son enlisted at age 17 and did his basic training at Fort Sill, intending to fight in Iraq.
“He just said, ‘Mom, I need to go over there and take care of things, because if I don’t, who else will?'” she said.
