Pfc. Rachel K. Bosveld enlisted in the Army when she graduated from high school in June 2002, following in the footsteps of her father and brother. Her mother said she desperately tried to talk her daughter out of it. “She said, `I know, Mom, but I have to do this … I want to keep up the family tradition”. Mary Bosveld said. Bosveld, 19, of Waupun, Wis., died Oct. 26 in an attack at a police station near Baghdad. She was stationed with the military police in Germany. When she first got to Iraq, “she was ready to kick butt”, said her father, Marvin Bosveld. But after eight months in the sands of Iraq, barely surviving a roadside ambush and patrolling anti-American riots, she had had enough. “More and more people want us to go home”, she wrote to her father. “Believe me, we want to go home”. Marvin Bosveld and his former wife, Mary, were foster parents to Rachel who came to them as a neglected baby. The couple adopted her. Craig Bosveld described his sister as an artist who loved to draw forest scenes, play her violin and act in her high school drama club. She hoped one day to become a graphic artist.
Army Pfc. Bosveld was assigned to the 527th Military Police Company, V Corps, Giesen, Germany. Bosveld was fatally injured during a mortar attack on the Abu Ghraib Police Station. Rachel came to the Bosveld family as a neglected foster baby and the family adopted her when she was two months old. After the Bosvelds divorced, she spent her first two years of high school in Oshkosh, living with her mother. She came to Waupun to live with her father during her junior and senior years. At Waupun High, Rachel was described as “creative, very caring, and dependable.” She played on the soccer team, sang in the choir, loved to draw forest scenes, play her violin and act in her high school drama club. She hoped one day to become a graphic artist. Rachel enlisted in the Army when she graduated from high school in June 2002, because she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father and brother. She entered boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., planning to serve in the military, and then go to college with an eye toward a career in law enforcement. In October she graduated from boot camp, and within five months she was in Iraq. After surviving a grenade attack on September 12, 2003, aimed at the humvee she was driving, Rachel was ready to come home. She tried to make sure her family didn’t worry by starting each letter to them with “I’m OK. I’m really OK.†She ended the letters saying, “Don’t worry Mom. Everything is OK. I’ll be OK.” She kept assuring her family she was getting her sleep, staying alert, keeping her head down and looking over her shoulder.
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