Karolasz, Edward

Karolasz, Staff Sgt. Edward
Photograph courtesy of US Army
(October 25, 1980 - November 19, 2005)
The first soldier from Kearny, New Jersey, to die in the Iraq war.
With little resemblance to the houses with four or more bedrooms, three bathrooms and a three-car garage growing at an alarming rate between corn fields in New Jersey, the house where Edward Karolasz took his first steps was in a working class neighborhood. The Italian family that lived on one side of Karolasz's family and the black family that lived on the other was characteristic of Kearny. As he was growing up, he was an altar boy at St. Stephen's Catholic Church and broke a leg in high school. His friends thought that he wanted to get out of Kearny to do something different, but ever since he was a kid he wanted to wear a military uniform, most likely because Philip Kearny, for whom the town was named, was one of the most colorful soldiers of his era. Without going into a lot of detail, Kearny, despite having a wife and five children, brought his French mistress to Kearny in 1854 and, after a divorce in 1858, had three children with his second wife.
After graduating from Kearny High School in 1999, Karolasz enlisted in the Army and, after basic training, served in Kosovo and Germany. At the same time, on furloughs, he enjoyed skydiving, bungee jumping, and skying in the mountains of Switzerland and other countries.
After four years of military service, he planned to sign up for another tour of duty and then become a police officer. He was assigned to the Army's First Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. His first assignment in Iraq was a quiet one near his base. His duties became more dangerous as conditions in Iraq deteriorated. He was killed when his patrol went over a roadside bomb near Baiji, north of Baghdad. Lt. Dennis Zilinski was killed in the same attack.
With national and state flags at half-mast, Karolasz was buried on December 3, 2005, with full military honors in St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Kearny and Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, N. J. The city of 40,513 people had never seen such respect for one of their own since World War II when Kearny lost nine Polish soldiers. Hundreds of mourners, each with an American flag, lined both sides of Kearny Avenue for more than a mile. Motorcycles led the colorful procession through the town and continued north on Route 17 to the cemetery where the son of Edward and Krystyna Karolasz was laid to rest.
From: Edward Pinkowski (2008)

Funeral of Staff Sgt. Karolasz
Photographs: Courtesy of Jim Lowney