This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Vernal • Sgt.Daniel Gurr was a soccer player and a student-body officer at Uintah High School, but his destiny, he knew from an early age, was to be a military man.
The 21-year-old Marine died Friday in Malozai, in the Sangin district of the deadly Helmand province of Afghanistan, shot in the head by small-arms fire while he was on patrol. His parents and siblings in Vernal were informed late Friday morning. A Marine press officer confirmed the death, but not the details.
His mother, Tracy Beede, said her son was clearing a village when he came across enemy fire and was killed.
"That knock on the door was awful," she said of learning her son was dead.
Gurr was the fourth Utah serviceman to die in Afghanistan this summer. His family said he's the first Vernal service member to die in combat since the Vietnam War.
"He came out [of the womb] with combat boots, a Ka-Bar [knife] between his teeth and a helmet," said family friend John Laursen, an undersheriff for Uintah County. "He always wanted to go in the military."
Beede said her son "begged and begged" when he turned 17 for her permission to enlist because he was too young to do so without. Within days of his 2008 high school graduation, he left for basic training.
"He always wanted to pay back, as he put it, his freedom," she said. "He wanted to give other people the opportunities he had. People need to know the opportunities they get in this world come from the sacrifices of others, and that's how Daniel looked at it."
His father David Gurr, of Vernal, said he did not even try to talk his son out of enlisting. "He always wanted to be a Marine."
The young man picked that branch of the service, his father said, because "he thought they were the bad asses. He wanted to be the best."
Gurr was co-captain of the Uintah High School soccer team, and served as student council vice president his junior year, family and friends said.
"He was liked by damned near everybody," Laursen said.
By Friday night, the outside of Beede's home was filled with U.S. flags and yellow ribbons placed by volunteers after they heard of Daniel Gurr's death. A prominent photo hanging in Beede's living room shows her son in full military dress next to his family, all wearing patriotic clothing. Beede, wearing a U.S. Marine T-shirt on Friday night, said her son took the photo with him to Afghanistan.
"He was loved by many," she said. "We were very proud of him."
His father said he "loved the outdoors, loved hunting."
He was assigned to 3rd Recon Battalion, 2nd Marine Division.
Gurr was trained in recon — essentially special ops, the elite commandos — at Camp Pendleton and on Okinawa, but he deployed to a war zone for the first time in May, his father said.
"He's the only kid I know who went through basic training and said that was easy," he said. "He was mentally and physically strong."
Beede said her son was very excited to be deployed to a combat zone.
Gurr was promoted to sergeant just a few weeks ago, she said.
Gurr was home in April for his older sister's wedding, and Laursen remembers discussing the sense of duty the young Marine felt.
"He said, 'I will willingly take a bullet for my country,' " Laursen said by phone on Friday.
Gayle McKeachnie, a former Utah lieutenant governor, was Gurr's bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. McKeachnie spent time with Beede on Friday.
"His mother told me, 'The price of freedom is not cheap,' " McKeachnie said.
The family has suffered loss before. Beede's second husband, Ken Beede, died less than three years ago.
"It's pretty hard for them, especially the younger brother," the bishop said.
Gurr is survived by a sister three years older, a 17-year-old sister and a 14-year-old brother as well as his stepmother, Dana Gurr.
Daniel Gurr's mother and father said they hope to travel to Dover Air Force Base this weekend so they can be there when their son comes home.
Funeral arrangements are pending.