Date of Birth: Nov. 29, 1976 Beaver County Oklahoma, USA Death: Aug. 1, 2007, Iraq Sgt. 1st Class Travis Bachman, 30, died Aug. 1, 2007, in Al Basrah, Iraq. He was born Nov. 29, 1976, in Beaver Okla., the son of Rodney Dean and Connie Jo Hampsten Bachman. He graduated from Garden City High School in 1995. He then attended a semester at Garden City Community College. He had worked as a department store manager at The Home Depot, Garden City. He belonged to the Kansas Army National Guard 1st Battalion, 161st Field Artillery, American Legion Harry H. Renick Post No. 9, and he attended First Southern Baptist Church, Garden City. On Sept. 21, 2002, he married Amber Jolene Howard in Garden City. She survives. Travis will forever be honored as a war hero, joining so many fine young men and women tragically lost since the United States went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Amber Bachman was counting down the days when her husband, Travis, stationed overseas, would be coming home. In three weeks he would be kissing his babies and telling them how much he loved them in person, rather than on the phone or through an e-mail."He was so close," "He told me he couldn't wait to come home -- to spend time with us and be a family again." He was a soldier who carried the pulse of his men with him. His company was his family and he would do anything for anyone, including putting a flag-draped coffin of a soldier on a plane to send him home. "He told me that was the hardest thing he had ever had to do in his military career," she said. Amber said her husband had found fellow Guardsman, Sgt. Courtney Finch, 27, dead in his room in Iraq. Finch had died in a noncombatant incident. She said the two men didn't know each other outside of the military but had been deployed together to Iraq and Kosovo. "Travis told me when he closed his eyes. He could still see him (Finch)," she said. "It was a nightmare for him." Amber kept in contact with her husband as much as possible and she remembers the last conversation she had with him on Monday and the concerns he had voiced to her. "He told me people were getting stupid over there," she said. "He told me he was scared and worried. He was so close to coming home and things were getting tough." Survivors include: two sons, Tyler and Zachary, both of Garden City; a daughter, Kaleigh, Garden City; his parents, Garden City; two brothers, Bill and Thomas, both of Garden City; and a sister, Crystal Bachman, Garden City. He is preceded in death by his paternal grandmother, Madge Horton; and maternal grandfather, Kenneth Hampsten. Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at First Southern Baptist Church, Garden City, with Pastor Rick Durham presiding. Visitation will be from noon to 8 p.m. Friday at Garnand Funeral Home, Garden City. Burial will be in Valley View Cemetery, Garden City, with military rites conducted by the Kansas Army National Guard. Burial Valley View Cemetery Garden City Finney County Kansas, USA Sgt 1st Class Travis Bachman Travis, Amber, and Family See also: http://www.findagrave.com/ bachman