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"1LT Brian N. Bradshaw, 24, of Steilacoom, WA, died June 25, 2009 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, AK. He died in Kheyl, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Paul Bradshaw, of Steilacoom, Pierce County, said his son joined the Army and went to Afghanistan “to try and help people” and to make the lives of the people there better. “That was his hope. He didn’t go to win a war.” Lt. Bradshaw came from a military family. His father is a retired National Guard helicopter pilot; his mother is a retired Army nurse. Like any parents in these times, Paul Bradshaw said, they had “very mixed emotions” about their son’s choice to join the ROTC program at PLU. “We are proud beyond belief, (but) we really didn’t encourage him very much, either.” A graduate of Visitation Catholic School and Bellarmine High School, both in Tacoma, Lt. Bradshaw grew up in Steilacoom. During high school he served as a member of Pierce County Search and Rescue and was a counselor during summers at Camp Don Bosco, a Catholic Youth Organization camp in Carnation, where he had once been a camper himself. In addition to his father, Lt. Bradshaw is survived by his mother, Mary, and his brother, Robert."