Widner, Vernon Ralph

Vernon Ralph Widner was a 34-year-old U.S. Army corporal from Redlands, California. He was assigned to Company A, 3rd Special Troops Battalion, part of the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based Task Force Band of Brothers, a unit of the 101st Airborne Division.

On November 17, 2005, Corporal Widner was killed by hostile fire in Tikrit, a city north of Baghdad. According to the Department of Defense, he died from wounds sustained when his unit came under small arms fire while conducting combat operations.

His death occurred during a period of intense violence in the Iraq War. The years 2005 through 2007 saw a significant escalation in insurgent attacks and sectarian conflict, particularly following the bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra in February 2006. U.S. forces, including those in the Sunni Triangle region containing Tikrit, faced persistent attacks.

Widner's death was reported by the Department of Defense and noted in several news publications, including the Los Angeles Times, which listed him among Californians killed in the war. He was posthumously promoted from specialist to corporal.

Corporal Widner is memorialized on the Iraq War Veterans Memorial and is listed on the 101st Airborne Division's Global War on Terrorism monument at Fort Campbell. His name is also inscribed on Panel 9 of the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Sacramento's Capitol Park, which was later expanded to honor all Californians lost in subsequent wars.

Corporal Widner was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2010). The conflict concluded in August 2010. See the full roster of those killed in this conflict.

Among those documented in the same conflict: Kennedy, Brian Matthew, Beaupre, Ryan Anthony, Gutierrez, Jose, Waters-bey, Kendall Damon.

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