By Meghan McCormick
Michele and Tim Wright find comfort in a letter their son, Army 1st Lt. David T. Wright II wrote to them just in case he never returned home.
"If you are reading this then I was unable to make it home," Wright wrote in the letter. "But that's Okay because I'm in a better place now. A place where there is no war and no fighting. A place where I am at peace."
The Wrights received their last letter from David or "Timmy" as he was known to his family, accompanied with his personal belongings on Oct. 14, exactly one month after he died in Afghanistan.
It was Sept. 14, when Wright, 26, of Moore, led his platoon on a mission close to the Kandahar and Helmand border. The group knew the high level of risk associated with this particular task. Danger was imminent.
Once Wright and his soldiers completed the job, it was time to head back to camp. Wright was riding in a combat vehicle when it hit a deep, buried improvised explosive device, according to Wright's parents.
"There was absolutely no way to know it was there," Michele Wright said.
Wright had deployed to Afghanistan in July with the II Platoon Bravo Company, 5th Brigade, II Infantry Division; Striker Brigade/Combat Team out of Fort Lewis, Wash.
The University of Oklahoma is expected to pay tribute to Wright and other fallen soldiers with a moment of silence at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium before the Nov. 14 football game against Texas A--M.
"I can't wait for them to show the video of his platoon before the game," Michele Wright said.
She said her son's last letter was a letter that soldiers are suggested to write to their loved ones, should they not return home.
"This is no one's fault, I made this choice freely and I am proud of what I accomplished. You were supportive of me and that gave me strength," Michele Wright read aloud as tears filled her eyes.
"I know that in my final days I made a difference in this world, and that justifies my sacrifice," the letter stated.
Michele Wright said Sept. 14 was a typical day until about 4:15 p.m. She had just pulled into the Norman Regional Hospital parking lot and was headed back to her office.
"I could see Tim walking across the parking lot," she said.
"What are you doing here?" she remembered asking. "He starts shaking his head."
She knew something was terribly wrong when she saw her husband accompanied by a chaplain.
The Wrights are proud of their son and his accomplishments. They miss him and the memories they won't be able to share with him.
"We will never see our son get married or have grandchildren," she said. "We know there was a reason why all this happened."
About a month before his deployment, Wright paid a visit home.
Michele Wright described her only child as a "homebody" who was content spending time with his loved ones. The family of three spent two weeks together grilling steaks, swimming in the backyard pool and playing video games.
"We played Zelda," Michele Wright said.
Zelda was the only video game the mother and son played together. There is an unfinished game at the Wrights' home.
"It was stuff we did together," the mother said.
Michele Wright remembers the last words she told her son before he boarded a plane back to Fort Lewis. It was the last time she would ever see her son alive.
"I said, 'You don't have to be a hero. Just do your job,'" she said.
In the two months he served in Afghanistan, Wright was able to phone his parents three times. He also wrote letters back and forth with his parents.
"He was leading at a level so much higher than his lieutenant rank," one of Wright's commanding officers told his mother.
Michele Wright said her son was constantly concerned about the welfare of his platoon. The mother believes her son continues to watch over his soldiers.
"He's there and protecting his men," she said.
When Wright's unit returns to Fort Lewis in August, Wright's parents plan to welcome them back to the Army post.
"We know when we make that trip to Fort Lewis, Washington, that's when our son is coming home," his mother said.
Michele Wright said her son was athletic his whole life. He grew up playing sports, spending his early years concentrating on baseball.
In high school, Wright played football and ran track. He also studied Jujitsu.
"If he started or did something, it was commitment all the way," Tim Wright said.
The father said his son was "strong willed."
"We like to say he got the best qualities from both of us," Wright's father said.
He was a senior in high school on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked by terrorists.
"9-11 affected him greatly," Tim Wright said.
Wright graduated from Moore High School in 2002 and earned a track scholarship to attend the University of Oklahoma.
"We traveled with him to all his (track) meets," Michele Wright said.
Wright graduated from OU in December 2006 with a bachelor of arts in sociology/criminology.
The Wrights knew their son wanted to become a police officer just like his father who is a lieutenant for the Moore Police Department.
After college, Wright entered the United States Army.
"He felt like he needed to go, serve his country," Michele Wright said.
Wright completed basic training at Fort Benning, Ga. He also finished Officer Basic School at Fort Benning. Wright earned the Army Achievement Award and Soldier of the Cycle, which is the top soldier of his class.
Michele Wright keeps scrapbooks filled with her son's accomplishments dated from high school through his military career. Pictures of Wright as a son and soldier are visible in the couple's living room.
"We chronicled his whole track career," she said.
Wright was buried wearing his "O" ring that he earned when he lettered in track at OU.
Michele Wright said since Wright's death almost two months ago, her family has received kind words and outpouring of support not only from people in Norman and Moore but from other communities and even countries around the globe.
"You can keep our son's memory alive by praying for every person in every branch of the military," she said.
Tim Wright said the soldier would share some of his thoughts in his letters.
"David had a way of telling stories," he said. "He was very witty."
Wright's father recalled his son once relaying an account of something that had happened during a mission.
"Dad, I got war stories, who would have thought," Tim Wright recalled his son telling him.
The father misses the fact that he won't hear any more of those war stories.
