ROSELLE, IL, USA U.S. Army SSG, HHT, 2D SQUADRON, 5TH CAVALRY, FORT HOOD, TX BAGHDAD, IRAQ 03/02/2007
The tall, slender young man with the affable manner spoke Spanish fluently. His talent for language was the result of a childhood in Germany and a mother of Mexican descent. Staff Sergeant Paul M. Latourney knew at an early age that his duty was to serve his country, say his family and friends.
He was born in Atlanta and moved to Germany with his family when he was 3. The family moved to the Chicago suburbs in 1994.
Faculty members at Lake Park High School in Roselle, where Paul graduated, described him as a leader who was quiet and unassuming. Throughout his junior and senior year, he was always very quiet and very focused. Also remembered as a quiet kid, but strong in character, Paul believed during his last two years of high school, he was going to go into the military.
In high school, he made the honor roll and belonged to the school’s ski club, German club and the cross country team. He had very good language skills. His parents reserved a college dorm room for him at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but Paul never occupied it.
Ten days after high school graduation, he was in the Army. He just couldn’t see himself in an academic environment or in an office. He came from a comfortable environment, and I think he wanted a little bit of a challenge. A 1997 high school graduate, he was assigned to Fort Hood. By the time he graduated from high school, he had finished basic training.
Paul M. Latourney was fluent in English, Spanish and German, and spoke decent French. He’d traveled all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, Germany and several times to Iraq.
Family remembers there wasn’t a nobler person. He had the biggest heart you could imagine. LaTourney is survived by a son, Isaiah, 3, mother, Maria Teresa; father, Paul; sister, Anna.
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