An American hero, R.I.P.:

Even when he was a little boy playing with his GI Joe action figure, there was little doubt what Jonathan Cadavero would do when he grew up.

“That’s going to be me,” he’d say of his toy soldier.

He came from a patriotic, pro-military family. Two of Cadavero’s uncles had fought in Vietnam. His maternal grandparents had fled Stalin-era Ukraine and told tales of oppression that stoked his instinctive love for his own country.

“He just absolutely loved America and what it stood for,” recalled his sister, Kristia Cavere…”God bless America, and God bless my commander in chief,” he told Cavere when he left for Iraq in August…Cadavero went straight from college to the Army. He was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division and stationed upstate at Fort Drum, near Watertown. When his unit was finally deployed overseas, more than a year later, Cadavero was pleased.

“Kris,” he told his sister, “I want to fight so that your kids don’t have to.”

He felt great progress was being made in Iraq and complained bitterly about the negative media accounts. A crowd of Iraqis cheer a group of American GIs, but the reporters flock to the one person who spits, he told his family…Cavere is left with the words her brother spoke during their last phone conversation, two weeks before his death. It was one final shot of patriotism.

“He said he had no regrets. He would do it all over again, and he loved being an American.”

Spc. Cadavero’s Legacy.com page, where you can leave messages of condolence and gratitude, is here.