Corporal Luis "Toast" Santos

Corporal Luis Santos had an inside joke with everyone who got to know him. After he was killed by an IED, soldiers throughout Stalker platoon couldn't help but break into fits of laughter telling stories about him. The last time Sergeant Jesse Trumpore saw Luis alive, he quoted a line from comic Dave Chapelle, Trumpore laughed out loud, Luis smiled, loaded into a humvee and died shortly thereafter.

When Luis died, members of Stalker platoon were conducting routine, three-day observation posts in the Naquib area outside Baquba. Few good things happen in Naquib, so the platoon sergeant, Sergeant First Class Michael Greer hoped his platoon might catch the "bad guys" in the act.

A day into the operation Greer received intelligence that a group of insurgents had planned an attack on a nearby village. Hoping to intercept the attackers, Greer decided to shift locations.

Driving to the new position, Staff Sergeant Nicodemus' humvee hit the first IED. An orange flash and smoke filled the vehicle. Objects from the trunk warped and blew into the cab. As the humvee settled, Nicodemus momentarily lost composure and panicked trying to take stock of the situation and inquire about the safety of his crew. Medic Tom Siqueros moved in to calm him.

Miraculously everyone in Nicodemus' humvee survived the blast virtually unharmed—Nicodemus suffered a minor burn on his back. Though the IED completely destroyed the humvee, it had detonated under the only empty seat. Once a support convoy arrived to recover the damaged humvee, the rest of Stalker continued with the mission.

The second IED of the night that killed Santos detonated only several miles down the road from Nicodemus' damaged truck. The blast rocked the middle of the Stalker convoy, hitting Staff Sergeant Andy Overgard's humvee. Alone the IED might not have been lethal, but it triggered explosives soldiers were carrying inside the vehicle. After the blast, the remains of the humvee lay upside down and flaming.

The blast threw everyone, but Overgard from the vehicle. Trapped momentarily in the burning humvee, he suffered severe burns on his arm and head. His injuries required that he return to the United States for further treatment and recovery.

Badly shaken, Staff Sergeant Eric Moroge initially thought he'd lost his legs, but ultimately he and the driver walked away with minor injuries. The medics feared the worst for Specialist Robbie Mathis, who couldn't feel below his waist; however, after hospital treatment doctors discovered he'd suffered serious internal bruises. With a week of rest Mathis could return to duty.

Sergeant Joseph Garcia, a friend and a mentor to Luis Santos, found him face down outside the burning humvee. He rolled Santos over and saw shrapnel had gone through his face. He'd died instantly. There was nothing anyone could do, but treat the wounded and remember their fallen friend and comrade.

Luis, or "Toast," had a way of making bad situations good. When Sergeant Joseph Garcia punished him for writing "hungry" instead of "Hunsuck" all over Private First Class Brian Hunsuck's equipment—Hunsuck was Toast's pudgy friend and humvee crew member—Toast spent ten minutes doing push-ups, sit ups, squat thrusts, and lunges. Throughout the punishment session Toast couldn't stop smiling. When he tried to tell Private First Class Matt Graham what happened, Toast was laughing so hard it took him several minutes and multiple tries to get the story out.

Iraq and the Army had worn down Toast. "I just want to get out of the Army and go to college," said Toast one afternoon on guard duty. Recently having been promoted from private first class to specialist, he complained that the sergeants restricted him from taking a more proactive role around base. Simple chores, like taking out trash or cleaning up common areas never bothered Santos. It made him feel uncomfortable and lazy when the sergeants forced him to dole out these tasks to privates.

Despite his complaints about the Army, Toast was just a guy who liked his job. When he joined the Army, he told the recruiter that he wanted to be a James Bond-like spy. If he decided not to go to college he would have tried out for special forces. Santos loved adventure.

Less than a month before the IED, Toast turned twenty. Sergeant Jordan Savor, a close friend of Santos, remembers a time back in the States when he left Toast alone in the car for nearly twenty minutes while he ran an errand. As soon as Savor returned, Toast—who'd clearly been thinking about this for the last twenty minutes—asked if the president was commander and chief of the entire military, could he just wear whatever uniform he wanted? Could he wake up one day and put on an Air Force uniform and the next day maybe a Navy uniform?

When Luis got drunk, he spent most of the night apologizing to everyone for being so drunk. Speaking at Toast's memorial service, Specialist Tony Chicoine said he was certain that if Santos could see everyone, he'd be apologizing for making everyone feel so sad.