Former Bradenton Resident Killed In Afghanistan Combat

Army Sgt. William E. Hasenflu felt he could make a difference as a soldier.

That idealism, his mother said, was a major reason Hasenflu enlisted in the Army after a career in the Navy.

Hasenflu, whose mother lives in Bradenton and his father in Sarasota, was in his fourth tour in Afghanistan when he was killed in action Sunday, officials said.

He was due back in Fort Campbell, Ky., on Oct. 15, where he would have been reunited with his wife of 17 years and their three daughters, said his mother, Jane Mann.

Hasenflu, who lived for many years in Bradenton before relocating to Kentucky, was killed Sunday in an ambush on his unit in the Jaji District Center in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense reported. He would have turned 39 on Monday.

The decorated career military man was fatally wounded by small-arms fire as he was taking detainees into custody, according to an Army statement.

Mann said her son had tired recently of serving so much combat duty in the Afghan conflict.

He did not want to leave his family again but his belief that he could help his country prompted him to keep fighting, Mann said Tuesday.

He Had Been Gone For A Year

Hasenflu had spent nearly an entire year away from his family during his latest tour.

"My son was frustrated with going over for a fourth time," said Mann. "But even though he thought much of the war was being fought over money, he believed he could still go over there and straighten out some of the bad parts."

William Hasenflu enlisted in the Navy as soon as he graduated high school in Meadville, Pa., where he grew up, Mann said. He also served in the Navy Reserves and the National Guard before joining the Army in May 2005, his family said.

Mann remembers when her eager teenage son came home to deliver the news of his enlistment.

"I didn't know about it and I had a fit, but he had decided that is what he wanted to do," she said.

Hasenflu met his wife of 17 years during military basic training in Orlando.

His wife, Judith Corbeau-Hasenflu, lives in Cadiz, Ky., with the couple's three daughters: Savannah, 16; Ashley, 15, and Veronica, 4, Mann said.

Hasenflu and his wife were "bookends holding the family together," Mann said. They home-schooled the girls, always vacationed as a family and loved singing old-time Christmas carols together, she said.

Hasenflu also studied martial arts - anything to be a "lean, mean fighting machine," he would say to his mother.

The loss of her son is only now sinking in. "I'm basically a mess ... just a basket case over this," Mann said as she stifled tears while looking at pictures of her son in her West Bradenton home. His wife "Judith is just devastated. She said she's just totally falling apart."

He Was Supportive Of Friend

Michael Mendoza of Bradenton, one of Hasenflu's best friends, said Hasenflu stood "side-by-side" with Mendoza as he was rehabilitated from a traumatic head injury sustained in a military training exercise in 1993.

Mendoza spent years re-learning common activities and finding another way to put food on the table, and Hasenflu was there throughout to help, he said.

"Bill helped tutor me during my community re-entry programs and years of life coaching," said Mendoza, 36, a disabled Army combat paramedic. "He always helped people focus on what they could do and not what they couldn't do."

Mann plans to visit her daughter-in-law and grandchildren soon; however, she is upset the military is only funding a four-day trip for her. She said she cannot afford to stay longer because of mounting medical bills and being without a job since she was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

That is not where Mann's disappointment with the Army ends.

"My son was on his fourth tour of duty, always over there for at least a year or more," she said. "No man who is married with children should be forced to go more than three times. If he hadn't, he would be alive."

Mann intends to write a letter of protest to the Florida House of Representatives and Senate, she said.

As of Monday morning, the Defense Department listed 535 United States military casualties in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan since the late 2001 invasion.

The Army will hold a memorial service for Hasenflu in Afghanistan, and an Eagle Remembrance Ceremony will honor him on Oct. 15 at Fort Campbell.