Student’s life ends in Iraq
David Day lives on in the fond memories of classmates and instructors

-- Bob Longmore

Jenni Runte stares thoughtfully at the photograph that lies on the table in front of her. She leans forward slightly, lets out a low wistful sigh and points towards the picture.

In the picture, a handsome young man stands proudly, wearing a neatly pressed Army uniform of desert camouflage. Strapped around his right thigh is a holster containing an Army-issued pistol. Pulled down low, his cap casts a shadow across his eyes. Across his face, a wide, friendly and captivating smile shines towards the camera.

Runte points to the smile and says, “That is just him. He always brought that grin. He always brought that joy.”

The man in that picture is David Day. That picture is on the cover of his funeral program. He died in Iraq on Feb. 21, 2005, while deployed as part of the Army National Guard. While checking on an overturned vehicle in Baghdad, a bomb exploded and took his life. Day was a staff sergeant with the 151st Field Artillery, part of a guard unit based in Montevideo, Minn.

Day attended Metropolitan State University before being deployed to Iraq last October. He was a student in Jenni Runte’s writing class last summer. Runte remembers him fondly. She says, “He was just eager to be helpful and eager to be learning.”

Day had a friendly attitude that other students appreciated. Runte says, “He was always welcoming and inclusive. He was always just a little bit out of line. He was the guy that could make the joke the entire class would laugh at. It would bring the whole class together.” Runte recalls that after Day’s death she received several notes from students asking if that was “our Dave.”

It was during that summer session at the university that Day found out that he would be activated and then be sent overseas. While Day never explicitly talked about going to Iraq, Runte sensed that Day knew it was part of the job he signed up to do. Runte says, “He was going gladly, not necessarily eagerly.”

Day worked as a St. Louis Park police officer before being activated by the Guard. Police Chief John Luse said Day was an ideal person and police officer.

Day married his high school girlfriend, Amy Gulbrandson, shortly before being deployed. The story goes that he bought her a car and then hid the engagement ring in the glove compartment as a surprise. They were married in Morris, Minn. only nine days before Day reported for active duty.

An enormous procession followed the hearse that carried Day’s casket through the streets of Morris. Roses were laid down in the vehicle’s wake to honor his memory. The different communities to which Day belonged, the city of Morris, the police force and the military, all came together to honor Day. Because of the size of the funeral, Runte watched the funeral with hundreds of others on closed-circuit television from the basement of Assumption Catholic Church. She says, “It was a sea of police officers on one side and a sea of family and friends on the other side.” When talking about how special it was to be at the funeral, Runte says “It was because he was our student; it was a person with whom I had a relationship…he was our Dave.”

After the memory of the funerals have faded, and after the stories have all been written, and one day when this war is over, David Day will still be that proud young man with the infectious grin. His friends, family and everyone his story has touched will keep him alive in their hearts and minds.

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