Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador, 29; Death quiets hero's music

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Death quiets hero's music
Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirado, who played Taps, comes home at last
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
First published in print: Saturday, November 7, 2009

COLONIE -- Someone else will have to play Taps.

Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador was remembered Friday as a determined
soldier who was passionate about her job, family and hometown. She is
the first woman soldier in the Capital Region to die in Iraq.

The 29-year-old Albany native grew up with sports and music at South
Colonie High School, and had played Taps on her trumpet at the funerals
of family members who were veterans of World War II, her father Gerard
Seyboth recalled.

Tirador also played the instrument in church and excelled in softball
and lacrosse. She grew up to become an Army medic, and helped save the
life of a soldier while taking arms fire in Iraq during an attack on an
American convoy. She also volunteered to return to Iraq in August as an
Arabic-speaking interrogator, a job she would not talk about, her father
said.

Tirador died Wednesday, just more than two months into her second tour
in Iraq, a victim of a "non-hostile incident," her father said in an
interview.

Tirador was assigned to the 209th Military Intelligence Company, 3rd
Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
The brigade deployed to Iraq in August, 2009. This was her third
deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Her first deployment
was to Turkey from February through April 2003 and the second deployment
was to Iraq from February 2004 through February 2005.

The Department of Defense released a statement late Friday announcing
that Tirador died Nov. 4 in Kirkush, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a
non-combat related incident. The circumstances surrounding the incident
are under investigation, the statement said. Non-combat deaths in Iraq
usually involve an accident or suicide.

Tirador's father said Army casualty officers told him his daughter died
from a gunshot wound.

He said the unexpected loss had left the Seyboth family deeply proud and
upset. "I wish that she didn't sign up to go again," an emotional Gerard
Seyboth said. "She got through the first tour. Why did you have to go
again?"

Tirador's husband, Mickey Tirador, who was stationed in Iraq on his
third tour of duty, was scheduled Friday to accompany his wife's body on
a flight to Dover Air Force Base. The Seyboth family, including Amy
Tirador's mother, Colleen; sister, April; and brother, Evan, drove to
the Delaware base to await the arrival of the casket.

Flags flew at half-staff Friday at Colonie Central High School, where
Amy Tirador graduated from in 1998. School officials recalled the first
woman from the Capital Region to die in the Iraq or Afghanistan
conflicts as bright and ambitious.

"What I remember the most about her, and what makes this especially
tragic, is her spirit," said Karen MacWatters, a music teacher who
taught Tirador how to play the trumpet. "For a kid who was so young, she
knew how to live. In the last couple of days, we all talked about that,
how together she was."

"This is a terrible loss for our South Colonie family and our thoughts
and prayers are with Amy's husband and her family," said Jonathan
Buhner, South Colonie superintendent of schools.
Amy Tirador was a member of the National Honor Society and a Regents
graduate, finishing with a class ranking of 59 in a class of 384, school
officials said. She was a four-year member of the school band and played
trumpet in the school orchestra.

She attended the state College of Environmental Science and Forestry in
Syracuse before joining the Army in 1999, her father said.

Amy Tirador deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the Army's First Infantry
Division. She provided medical support for escorts on convoys, a
dangerous job in an environment of roadside bombs and snipers.

"She had no problems with it," her father recalled. Amy Tirador returned
happy, and her family threw a welcome back party in the Joseph E. Zaloga
Post 1520 on Everett Road.

A few years later, she met her husband on a military base. They moved to
Washington before deploying together.
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