MARYSVILLE – Jordan Hess’ family members are grateful that they had a chance to say goodbye to the Marysville soldier who died this week of injuries suffered when his Abrams battle tank was shredded by a bomb in Iraq.
“He told us he loved us,” his father, Bill Hess, said Friday.
His parents and many of his seven siblings were in San Antonio on Tuesday when the Army specialist died at Brooke Army Medical Center, where he was brought for treatment.
Jordan Hess, 26, was driving the tank Nov. 11 when a roadside bomb exploded, critically wounding him.
Other members of the tank crew pulled him out. He was the only one seriously wounded, and that’s a small miracle, Bill Hess said.
“There wasn’t enough left to make scrap out of that tank,” he said.
Jordan Hess lived with his parents in Marysville until he joined the Army about three years ago. He worked as a roofer after attending Lake Stevens High School. He obtained his General Education Development certificate in Marysville.
He was impatient with school, although bright with math and some other subjects, said his mother, Tammy Hess. A diagnosis of attention deficit disorder may explain the impatience, his parents said.
Jordan Hess also was a complex person.
On one hand he was the soldier warrior and a champion amateur wrestler. On the other he wrote poetry, dabbled in blown glass and had an artist’s eye with a camera.
“He liked to make things,” Bill Hess said. “He was a free spirit and did the things he wanted to do.”
When he was younger, Jordan Hess and his dad tinkered with cars. The younger man got excited anytime he got something new. He would take it apart and put it back together, Bill Hess said.
In basic training, some recruits called him the “Terminator” after he escaped from one group during a war-game exercise, summoned his own squad and captured the other team. An instructor also once challenged Jordan Hess to a no-rules, one-on-one face off.
His wrestling experience came in handy and he accidentally broke the instructor’s leg with a takedown move.
Jordan Hess had been in Iraq only three or four weeks before he was wounded.
He had been planning to marry a young woman whom he had met while based in Germany, said Bill Hess, a Boeing Co. engineer.
A retired Air Force master sergeant, Bill Hess said the Army was good to the family, arranging for the parents, six brothers and a sister to visit the wounded soldier. He also praised the care his son received.
“There was a lot of hope at first,” Bill Hess said. When Jordan Hess’ condition worsened, the doctors at Brooke were straightforward with his family.
Before the injury, the last time his parents saw Jordan Hess was in June when he returned home to help around the house because Bill Hess had surgery.
“That was the kind of kid he was. He’d do anything to help the family,” Bill Hess said.
Jordan Hess is the only sibling to join the military.
His father said he’s as proud of his son and his son was a proud soldier.
“He had his ups and downs in life but he was really maturing into a real man,” Bill Hess said. “He was such a loving kid. Just having him around was great. The whole family loved him.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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