Capt. Joshua E. Steele
Fallen soldier a farm boy
Siblings recall an intense, intelligent, and driven brother
Friday, June 22, 2007
NORTH HENDERSON - Capt. Joshua E. Steele, who died Sunday while serving in Afghanistan, is a hero to friends, as well as area residents who never met the young man. But to his family, he also was a son and a brother.Steele was the son of R. Philip and Paula Steele of North Henderson. He had two sisters, Gina and Army 1st Lt. Lucinda Piotrowski, 25, stationed at Fort Sill, Okla., and a brother, Stephen. Gina, 38, and Stephen, 40, watched their little brother grow up on the farm, eventually becoming a bright teenager, then the young man who accomplished much in his 26 years.
Gina Steele of San Francisco, called her brother, "very intense, very goal-oriented, very smart," in a telephone interview Thursday.
"Josh was a special person."
Life on the farm
As a young boy, Josh Steele began a life-long love of studying rocks. That passion led to his bachelor of science degree in geological engineering in 2002 from the University of Missouri-Rolla.
"That started when he was about 5," said Senior Master Sgt. Stephen Steele of the Air Force. "When he was young, he was also very interested in dinosaurs."
Stephen Steele, who is in the process of moving from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, said his brother was in FFA.
"He won a soil contest," his brother said. "It was kind of funny, because I also won that award, but I don't know how. It was kind of a fluke."
Stephen Steele said his brother later explained to him what the soil identification contest was all about.
There were many things Josh Steele loved about life on the farm.
"He liked horses," Stephen said. "He adopted a mustang when he was 13."
His brother said an article about Josh adopting a wild mustang through the Bureau of Land Management was initially printed in the Aledo Times-Record, then in Western Horseman magazine.
"He loved to raise pigs," Gina said. "He would go to the fence post and talk to them."
She remembered he had the grand champion one year at North Henderson's Happy Days festival.
He also loved hunting.
Reaching his goals
Joshua Steele began grade school in Alexis, then transferred to Immaculate Conception School in Monmouth. He attended Alexis High School during his freshman through junior years, then transferred to Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Mo. He graduated from MMA in 1998. Josh's brother and sister said he thought attending MMA would help him reach his goals.
"He played football for Alexis for a couple of years," Stephen said, and also played at the military academy in Missouri.
Josh attended the University of Missouri-Rolla on a four-year Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship. He graduated magna cum laude and was active in Phi Kappa Phi and the Catholic Newman Center on campus.
For relaxation, "He loved the Tolkien books," Gina said.
In addition to becoming a captain at age 26, after only 4 1/2 years in the Army, Stephen Steele said his brother won the Commandant's Award when he went on active duty.
Capt. Steele was commissioned in 2002 at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. He was assigned to the 5th and later the 35th engineering battalion. This was his second deployment to the Iraq-Afghanistan war. He also served in the country of Georgia. He was deployed to Afghanistan in January 2007.
In a statement issued Thursday through Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn's office, his family said Josh decided on a military career at a very early age. In fact, going so far as to say as a teen, "he was willing to give his life for his country," said his mother, Paula Steele, in the news release.
What if?
Asked in the phone interview if his brother still planned to make the military his career, Stephen said, "I never really got the chance to talk with him about that."
"I think he was going for it," Gina said.
Stephen agreed that Josh, who wanted to earn his master's degree, initially wanted a military career, but he said that later, "He was not sure. He was in a stage in his career where he had fulfilled his initial obligation. He wasn't sure what he would do when he got back - in or get out."
His father, an attorney in Alpha, said in the prepared release, "Josh was incredibly intelligent and always stood up for the things he believed in. He was protective of everything he cared about, including his country, his family and especially his little sister. While Josh was often quiet, when he spoke, everyone remembered what he said. He was quick witted, straightforward and very honest. Because of his passion, hard work, creativity, intensity and perfectionism, he was able to accomplish anything he set his mind to do."
Stephen Steele will head to the East Coast and Saturday morning will escort his brother's body back to Quad City International Airport in Moline.
Arrangements for Capt. Joshua Steele
<0xE0E4> Visitation: 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at former Alexis High School
<0xE0E4> Funeral Mass: 10 a.m. Monday, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Monmouth
<0xE0E4> Burial: St. John's Cemetery, near Woodhull
<0xE0E4> Hurd-Hendricks Funeral Home, Knoxville, is in charge of arrangements.
Note: The body of United States Army Capt. Joshua E. Steele is currently scheduled to be arriving at the Quad City International Airport at 10:58 a.m. Saturday. A "Hero's Welcome" procession will follow. The procession route from the airport in Moline to the funeral home in Knoxville, was published in Thursday's edition of The Register-Mail. One small addition to the route is when the procession continues into North Henderson, it will now circle the ball diamond. Up-to-date, real-time locations of the procession will be broadcast on WAAG-FM 94.9 and WGIL-AM 1400.
