THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250465
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
A memorial service is planned this morning in Fort Campbell, Ky., in memory of Staff Sgt. William D. Cleveland Jr., a member of the Army's special forces who was killed two years ago in Somalia.
A building will be named for Cleveland, 34, whose family lives in Portsmouth, in honor of the Oct. 3, 1993, raid that left 18 U.S. soldiers dead in the streets of Mogadishu.
The ceremony and building dedication have been closed to the media.
Cleveland, a father of five, was a member of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell.
He was dispatched to Somalia in the fall of 1993 and was a crew chief on one of two Blackhawk helicopters shot down by rebels in Mogadishu.
The raid, in which 75 U.S. soldiers were injured, led to the withdrawal of American troops from the Somali relief effort.
The withdrawal was prompted, in part, by public outcry over a photograph of Somalis cheering as the body of a dead U.S. soldier was dragged through Mogadishu's streets.
Though the Army was unable to confirm the identity of the dead soldier, those who know Cleveland said they believed it to be him.
His stepmother, Mary Cleveland, an employee of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, identified Cleveland from the photograph, which ran in The Virginian-Pilot and other newspapers.
An Army spokesman said Wednesday there was still no word on the identity of the soldier pictured in the photograph.
Cleveland was buried on Oct. 20, 1993, at Resthaven Memorial Gardens, about 15 miles south of Fort Campbell. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Staff Sgt. William D. Cleveland Jr., 34, was the father of five. He
was killed Oct. 3, 1993.
by CNB