Soldier’s mother: ‘He was proud of his country’: The Examiner

US Army Staff Sergeant Joseph F. Curreri.

BALTIMORE - When Army Staff Seargent Joseph Curreri realized his Saint Christopher’s medal had slipped from his neck during a scuba-training mission on Siet (Lake Seit) Lake near Panamao (town in Sulu province) in the southern Philippines, he jumped back into the water, anxious to retrieve the pendant.

But the former champion swimmer apparently misjudged the water’s depth, blacked out and drowned last Friday while trying to return to the surface.

“This was so unexpected,” said Keith Schertle, coach of the Loyola Blakefield High water polo team, which Curreri founded as a senior. “I have known Joe since he was 10, and he could do anything in the water.”

Curreri, 27, and a native of Towson, had been deployed to the Philippines as part of the war on terrorism and was on his first overseas mission. St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers.
“He was very proud of his country,” said his mother, Karen Mittemeyer of Redondo Beach, Calif., who added that her son had earned the Army’s Special Operations Scuba Diver badge. “He was intelligent, religious and extremely adventurous.”

Mittemeyer said her son was anxious to return to Los Angeles, where he lived with his wife, Athena, to further his education.

“Joe had so much integrity and such a desire to succeed,” said Jenn Lohse of Towson, who swam with Curreri at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. “He was happy to be involved in the Army.”

Curreri, who started swimming for the NBAC when he was 9, graduated from Loyola High.

He swam for the University of Southern California, where he captained the team his senior year. In the Army, he was a Special Forces communications sergeant assigned to Fort Lewis, Wash.

“Joe enjoyed camaraderie and hard work,” said Murray Stephens, the NBAC’s founder and director. “He demonstrated leadership by being a team captain.”

“I remember looking at Joe’s [Army] photo and recalling his determination,” Schertle said. “Whenever Joe put his mind to something, he accomplished it.”

(Laura Duffy/http://www.examiner.com)

US Army Finally Names Dead Soldier In Southern Philippines

Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri, 27, died in an accidental drowning incident at Lake Seit in Panamao town in Sulu province on Oct. 26, 2007. (Army Photo/Mindanao Examiner)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 30, 2007) – The US Army Special Operations Command has finally released Tuesday the identity of an American soldier who died in the southern Filipino province of Sulu.

It said Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri, 27, died in an accidental drowning incident at Lake Seit in Panamo town on October 26. He was a Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha team communications sergeant assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Lewis in Washington.

Curreri, a native of Maryland, volunteered for military service and entered the Army in July 2004 as an infantryman. He volunteered for and completed U.S. Army Airborne training, and then volunteered for Special Forces training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

He was assigned to the 1st SFG (A) at Fort Lewis in 2006.

Hundreds of US soldiers under the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines are deployed in Sulu province and training local soldiers in various military tactics.

In February, a US Marine, Cpl. Timothy Lewis, suffered a heat stroke and eventually died from cardiac arrest in Sulu. It was the first reported death of a US soldier participating in this year’s joint military drill.

Lewis was part of a contingent from the Okinawa-based 3rd Marine Expeditionary Forces.

In February 2002, a US MH-47 Chinook helicopter with eight American crew and two soldiers on board crashed during a night flight in Bohol Strait in central Philippines. There were no survivors. The American troops were taking part in a joint military training with Filipino soldiers.

The helicopter was on a routine transit from the southern island of Basilan to the island of Mactan where the U.S. maintains a logistics air base.

In October of the same year, a US soldier was also killed after an Abu Sayyaf bomb exploded on a roadside restaurant outside a Philippine Army base in Malagutay village in Zamboanga City. (Mindanao Examiner)