Massillon man killed in Iraq war

Published May 24, 2005
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer

MASSILLON; - U.S. Army 1st Lt. Aaron Nicholas Seesan called his parents at 4 p.m. Saturday from Mosul, Iraq.

Tom and Chiquita Seesan and their other children -- Michael, Rachel and Rebekah -- all spoke to Aaron.

``He was his usual self,'' his mother said. ``He teased his sisters.''

Two hours after that call, Seesan was riding in a vehicle as part of a ``Striker Unit'' that looks for land mines, booby traps and roadside bombs.

The vehicle struck a bomb. The gas tank ruptured and exploded. Seesan was burned over 80 percent of his body.

About 24 hours later, an Army representative arrived at the Seesan home to tell them Aaron had died.

Seesan is the fourth soldier from Stark County -- and the eighth member of the armed services with ties to the Akron area -- to be killed in Iraq.

Seesan, who was with the 73rd Engineer Company out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was an Eagle Scout and a former football player at Washington High School.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant out of the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., in 2003, where he majored in marine engineered systems.

His father, Tom Seesan, superintendent of the Stark County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, said his son volunteered to go to Iraq because he was single and had no family. He went overseas because that would keep another officer with a family at home, Tom Seesan said.

His son also volunteered for Iraq duty because, by joining the 73rd Engineer Company that had been in Iraq a few months already, his tour of duty would be shortened, his father said.

Seesan arrived in Iraq after the elections in January 2005, his mother said. He was promoted to first lieutenant and turned 24 while in Iraq.

Seven hours after the last phone call from Seesan, the family received another call -- from an Army official reporting the injuries to their son.

An Army doctor told the Seesans their son was in Germany being treated and that he might be moved to San Antonio, Texas.

Twelve hours later, the doorbell rang at their home.

``Even the sound of the doorbell was ominous,'' Tom Seesan said.

He said his son's burns ultimately prevented him from breathing and getting oxygen into his body.

Seesan was interested in the military since he was a boy, said his mother, a registered nurse and massage therapist. He could rattle off dates of battles during World War II and often quoted Gens. George Patton and Douglas MacArthur, she said.

``He had a strong sense of service to his family and to his country,'' she said.

Seesan had told his family that he felt things were going well in Iraq.

``He was very committed to what he was doing,'' his father said. ``He felt there were many positive things happening in the country.''

Seesan was an altar server at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Massillon and was on the track team, speech team and Academic Challenge team in high school. He played center and nose guard on the Massillon Tigers football team.

``Once he committed to do something, that was his goal, and he would do it to the finish,'' his mother said.