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February 27, 2009

'What he chose to do'

Mark Millican

Susan Alleman said when her son took the military’s vocational aptitude test he “blew it out of the water” — but he declined serving in military intelligence to pursue infantry training in the Army.

A 1996 graduate of Southeast High School, Spc. Michael Alleman is the fourth soldier or Marine who graduated high school in Whitfield County to be killed in Iraq since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003. Alleman died with two other soldiers on Monday when their unit was ambushed by insurgents on a combat mission in Balad, about 70 miles north of Baghdad.

Three other local graduates — Army Sgt. Marshall Edgerton, Marine Lance Cpl. Juan Lopez and Marine Lance Cpl. James Michael Gluff — have given their lives in the Iraq war since March of 2003.

Alleman, 32, was a husband and father of two boys, ages 6 and 4, in Logan, Utah. He was a fifth-grade teacher at Nibley Elementary near Logan, but abruptly resigned midway through the 2007-2008 school year to join the Army. He was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

“He said the country needs good men to stand up, and said, ‘I’m willing to do that,’” his wife Amy is quoted in a story on the web site for KSL television and radio in Salt Lake City (www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid;=5686863). “And we left a life of comfort and security and we stepped out, and I know he didn't die in vain. I know that,” Amy said.

“He was very intelligent — and individualistic,” recalled Southeast teacher Debbie Barto. “Michael was into arts and drama, and had a great sense of integrity, of doing the right thing.

“We’re deeply saddened here at Southeast, and respect what he did. We offer our sympathies to the family.”

Asked to describe her son, Susan Alleman replied, “He was one of the greatest husbands and fathers I ever met in my life. He had a great sense of justice, and a great concern when injustice was done. He knew that if he didn’t help out over there his boys would have to see the same things he’d seen.

“He was very intelligent, and a great teacher. He could have been in any part of the armed forces, but this is what he chose to do.”

She said the family lived in Dalton from 1986 to 1998. Michael Alleman attended Dawnville Elementary School.

Former Southeast drama teacher Jackie Daniels remembers Alleman well.

“He joined our drama group late, as a senior, but he was so good we used him the first time he auditioned,” she said. “He had a great talent, and could do well on whatever he focused on.”

Daniels said Alleman took part in two productions primarily — “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “The Foreigner.”

“Michael was so surprising,” she said. “He could do almost everything. He could build all kind of stuff for the sets — I guess he learned to do that around his home with his dad — and he could figure out all kinds of things. He was so smart.”

“Tuesday evening, U.S. flags surround Alleman’s parents’ home in American Fork,” the KSL story said. “His wife said she last communicated with him over the Internet on Saturday night, sending him pictures of their son’s birthday party.”

“We were chatting online,” Amy Alleman said in the article. “I actually sent him the e-mail saying, ‘I just sent those pictures to you.’ And he texted me back and said, ‘We have two beautiful boys, don't we?’ And I said, ‘Yes we do.’ And that's the last I heard from him.”

Alleman’s funeral is Tuesday in Logan.







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