OxfordPress.com

Every few weeks, Sterling Brooks obsessively checks her cell phone's voicemail to make sure she hasn't erased the four messages her son, Army Sgt. Edward Brooks, left from Iraq.

The 25-year-old Dayton soldier was killed Aug. 29, 2007 by a roadside bomb during his third tour of duty.

The messages are all she has left of the son who always told her not to worry about his safety.

"I can't let his voice go," she said. "It's almost like I still have him with me."

The nation marks the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq on Wednesday, March 19. The Defense Department reports 3,987 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq and 418 in Afghanistan.

Ohio has lost 173 servicemen. Thirty-three had ties to the Miami Valley, including Army Cpl. Nicholas P. Brown, 24, who became a father eight days before he died.

The Huber Heights man had come home on leave just in time for the Jan. 14 birth of his son, Nicholas P. Brown II.

The soldier, who headed back to Iraq when the baby was four days old, was killed on Jan. 22, 2007 by a roadside bomb.

His son has since grown into a curious toddler who looks and acts just like his dad.

Sara Brown said she "would have been lost" without her son.

"When things are hard, I can just look at him," she said. "I see Nick in him so much."

Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia became the final resting place for Brown and Army Col. Paul Kelly of Beavercreek within days of each other.

Kelly, one of the most senior Army officers killed in Iraq, was buried on Feb. 1, 2007, the day after what would have been his 46th birthday.

Patrick Kelly said the loss of his brother hasn't changed his position on the war.

"Some might feel it's hard to believe that my opinion still of the war is we need to be there," said Kelly, 40, of Beavercreek. "We need to fight terrorism and we need to hopefully get that part of the world in a safer environment. Now, whether or not we can do that, time will tell, but certainly Paul believed in it and that's good enough for me."