Soldier who survived bomb dies in car crash

Soldier who survived bomb dies in car crash

By Andrew Dys - The (Rock Hill) Herald
Posted : Saturday Jan 12, 2008 7:21:03 EST

FORT LAWN, S.C. — Back in late November in Texas, the soldier everybody called “Country,” because he was from a tiny town of 850 people, was at his Texas Army barracks with his crushed right arm healing from a bomb attack in Iraq.

“Country” Charlie Messer, who loved a fish fry and his grits, called his father at home in Fort Lawn in Chester County and said he just went to see his beloved Dallas Cowboys versus the Green Bay Packers in a football game. He drove across the state to do it.

“The ticket cost 500 bucks,” Doug Messer said. “I told him, ‘You only live once.’ ”

Once was all Charlie Messer got. He survived that bomb attack in June. He had surgeries and a metal plate to bolster the shattered forearm. Luckily, he was left-handed.

Then on Dec. 22, just hours before he was to fly home to see his parents for Christmas, the 2007 Honda Accord he had bought in Rock Hill just weeks before on his last trip home crashed. Charlie Messer, at age 20, was dead.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_soldierdiesincrash_080112/