

Brandon Meyer was a wide-smiling pastor’s son with a sarcastic sense of humor and a fondness for practical jokes.
And when he first spoke by telephone with the woman who later became his wife -- a friend had set them up -- Meyer listed three of his favorite things: horses, surfing and the color baby blue. On their first date, she gave him a stuffed horse wearing a baby blue outfit with a shirt reading, “Surf’s up.”
“He just sat there with a stupid, goofy grin on his face and said, ‘That’s the first time someone’s actually listened to what I like,’ ” said Caitlin Meyer, 20, of Orange.
The next day, he took Caitlin to the beach to teach her to surf. She didn’t wear a wetsuit even though it was February.
“She’s nuts,” said one of his friends approvingly. “You have to go out with her.”
It soon budded into a romance, with him driving her to the beach for an early morning sunrise, regaling her with roses and chocolate. She taught him line dancing and gushed to friends about the slightly sheltered all-American boy she was falling in love with, taken with his goofball humor and strong convictions.
His family called him a faithful Lutheran and a patriot who believed in the war in Iraq.
He and Caitlin decided to join the military together and were married in a civil ceremony in November 2006, before they went off to basic training -- to ensure that the Army would station them together. Though she was later discharged because of her asthma, they had hoped to be sent to Italy after he got back from Iraq.
Meyer grew up in St. Louis and attended high school in the Texas Panhandle town of Canyon, where his family still lives. He ventured west to study biology at Concordia University in Irvine. But it was the ocean that beckoned him, transforming Meyer, a varsity baseball player, into a shaggy-haired surfer.
A towering 6 feet 4, with size 13 shoes, he was nearly as tall as his father, Terry, a Lutheran pastor. They shared a special bond and a sense of humor, Brandon’s mother, Genia, said.
He and his father used to poke fun at their height by pretending to knock their heads on the ceiling when they walked down the stairs, hitting it with a resounding thump for effect. Meyer would scare friends and family with masks, imitate voices from TV and movies, and plant fake plastic bugs to elicit screams. He also loved teasing his younger sister Desiree, now 18.
For Thanksgiving last year, his family visited him at Ft. Carson, Colo., before he shipped out for the Middle East.
“That was my moment knowing he was not that little boy anymore and he was a man,” his mother said. “He knew in life what he wanted to do and that was to go be in arms with his brothers.”
After he left, “I just cried like it was the last time I was going to see him, not knowing it actually was,” she said.
While in Iraq, he spared his family most of the details. But in one of his last phone calls to Caitlin he described how a bullet went flying by his head as he looked out a window and how a building had exploded five minutes before he was supposed to raid it.
“I just had a couple close calls. I’m just alive by luck,” he told her.
She started crying.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m coming home.”
Brandon died Jan. 28, six days before his 21st birthday. When Caitlin heard the news, she said, she “wanted to know how, if he died instantly -- because I didn’t want to think of him being in any pain and I didn’t want him to die alone.”
He didn’t. Meyer was one of five soldiers killed in Mosul when their convoy was hit by a roadside explosive. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Ft. Carson. The Army posthumously promoted Meyer, a private first class, to specialist.
The summer before he left for Iraq, Meyer had Caitlin kiss a piece of paper and had the image tattooed over his heart. He nearly fainted when her name was tattooed across his back. On his left arm, he had a Chinese character for warrior.
“The only parts of him left,” his wife said, “are the parts that have those tattoos on them and the side of him with his wedding ring.”
Meyer would feel proud knowing he died serving his country, his wife said. “He wanted people to know what’s going on over there is real,” she said.
A week before his death, she asked Meyer what he wanted for his funeral in case something happened. He wanted to be buried in his uniform by the beach, he said, with full military honors and “Amazing Grace” playing in the background.
Services will be held Monday, at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Orange, the church where he and Caitlin had their formal wedding ceremony a few months ago.
Burial will be at Pacific View Memorial Park, just a few miles from his favorite surfing spot in Newport Beach.
Caitlin will bury him with the stuffed horse she gave him on their first date.
Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times

Honor and Remember Nebraska Chapter is pleased to present this flag sponsored by UNMC Nursing Class 2016 to the family of SPC Brandon A. Meyer.

Soldier, newlywed dies in Iraq just short of 21st birthday. ORANGE, Calif. — When Spc. Brandon Meyer was deployed to Iraq five months after his wedding, he told his bride that if he died he wanted to be buried by the ocean and he wanted guests to wear his favorite color, baby blue.
Meyer, 20, was killed Jan. 28 when his convoy hit a roadside bomb in Mosul, Iraq. Four other soldiers — all from the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment Team, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, Colo. — died in the attack, according to the military.
Meyer’s wife, Caitlin, will bury him by the ocean this weekend after a funeral in the church where they were married. She said her husband never doubted his decision to enlist in the military.
“You go into it knowing it could happen, but at the same time you think, ‘Did this just happen to me?’” she said. “I’m a 20-year-old widow. That’s not normal. That’s not the way it should be. At all.”
The couple met on a blind date and Caitlin Meyer fell in love with the young man who had moved to Orange County from Texas to be closer to the beach. He also loved music, baseball and football.
“He’s everything I’m not, and I’m everything he’s not,” said his wife, who grew up in Orange. “It was a spark.”
Meyer called his wife two or three times a week between patrols in Mosul. He told her he had dodged bullets, including one that flew by his head when he looked out a window in a house that was raided by soldiers.
About a week after she heard that story, Meyer was killed in the roadside blast.
Meyer, who was promoted to specialist after his death, is also survived by his parents and a younger sister.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Five Fort Carson soldiers killed while on a mission to hunt insurgents were remembered in Mosul, Iraq, for their determination and tenacity.
More than 800 troops gathered inside a movie theater on the Army’s Forward Operating Base Marez to eulogize the five soldiers killed Jan. 28 when a homemade bomb exploded and destroyed their Humvee, The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported.
Killed were Sgt. James E. Craig, 26, of Hollywood, Calif.; Staff Sgt. Gary W. Jeffries, 37, of Roscoe, Texas; Spc. Evan A. Marshall, 21, of Athens, Ga.; Pfc. Brandon A. Meyer, 20, of Orange, Calif.; and Pvt. Joshua A. R. Young, 21, of Riddle, Ore.
They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
The memorial was attended by top American commanders in Iraq, including Gen. David Petraeus.
“He never wanted to quit,” Sgt. Tyler Daly was quoted by The Gazette of Marshall. “If you beat him at anything he would say ‘One more time’ or ‘Best two out of three.’”
Pfc. Anthony Mims said Meyer set an example by always giving of himself.
“Brandon was a great soldier and an awesome friend,” Mims eulogized.
Choking back tears, Spc. Richard Jackson told the crowd that Young’s dream was to make a difference in the world.
“That’s what he did,” Jackson said. “He made a difference where the fight is.”
“All were my friends, all were my comrades, and all were leaders,” Sgt. 1st Class Felipe Cruz said during a eulogy.
Cruz said Jeffries was an expert at ridding people of their sadness so they could face another day at war.
“He would bring me back to the light when I was seeing darkness,” Cruz said.
Sgt. Jacob Sandoz spoke about Craig during the service, recalling his friendship and his dedication to the American cause in Iraq.
“He would want us to continue fighting,” Sandoz said.
Slain soldier loved music, sports, the beach. Army Pfc. Brandon A. Meyer and his wife, Caitlin, met on a blind date. She fell in love with the young man who had moved to Orange County from Texas to be closer to the beach. He also loved music, baseball and football.
She gave him a stuffed horse wearing a baby blue outfit with a shirt reading, “Surf’s up.”
“He just sat there with a stupid, goofy grin on his face and said, ‘That’s the first time someone’s actually listened to what I like,’” said Caitlin Meyer.
Meyer, 20, of Orange, Calif., was killed Jan. 28 in an explosive in Mosul. He was born in Beatrice, Neb., and went to high school in Texas. He was assigned to Fort Carson, Colo.
The summer before he left for Iraq, Meyer had Caitlin kiss a piece of paper and had the image tattooed over his heart. He nearly fainted when her name was tattooed across his back. On his left arm, he had a Chinese character for warrior.
A towering 6-foot-4, with size 13 shoes, Meyer would scare friends and family with masks, imitate voices from TV and movies, and plant fake plastic bugs to elicit screams. He also loved teasing his younger sister Desiree, now 18.
The Associated Press