Bruce Price, a graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, was killed in an ambush in May 2004, during his third tour of duty in Afghanistan. He was 37. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army)

By Kendra Nichols
Maryland Newsline
Friday, April 15, 2005

Almost a year ago, a handful of weary soldiers solemnly entered the home of Herman and Madalin Price. Covered with wounds and bandages, the soldiers were grieving over the loss of one of their own, Chief Warrant Officer 2^nd Class Bruce Price, one of the leaders of their vehicle convoy in Afghanistan, and the Prices’ son.

An ambush of the convoy injured enough of the team for the entire unit to be sent back to Fort Bragg, N.C.  And just days after they returned from the field, Price’s second family, his unit, visited his parents to offer their condolences – and to tell the heroic story of how Price died, and how he helped them live.

Price died May 15, 2004, when his Army Special Forces unit was ambushed in Kajaki, Afghanistan, the Army said in a statement. Price, 37, was the only soldier killed in the ambush, which sent rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire toward his convoy. Three other men were injured.

Price left behind a wife and a then-8-year-old son.

Although family members say they are saddened by the loss, they agree that Price died doing what he loved most.

“He was a true patriot because he strongly believed in the military – he was very vocal about it,” said his father, Herman Price, who now lives in Palm Coast, Fla.

Bruce Price was often described as someone who had found his calling. But it took him a while to find it.

Finding His Way

Price was born at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to a somewhat nomadic military family. As a young boy in El Paso, Texas, he developed a love of nature and the outdoors.

It was here that he was introduced to the desert, hiking with his father and pet dog in the dry, mountainous region near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The dusty landscape was one he would come to know well.

His family moved to San Rafael, Calif., when Price was in middle school. He adapted easily, but soon after the move he began hanging around kids who “didn’t like to mind their parents” and went “roaming around the town,” said his mother. After what she called a “difficult year,” Bruce Price started to gain the kind of discipline and maturity he would later be known for. He started Chinese boxing, which sparked an interest in other cultures, especially that of China.

“That type of discipline and lifestyle became a part of him,” his father said.

Price’s boxing teachers eventually asked him to be an instructor, but before he could, his family moved again, to Chevy Chase, Md. He enrolled in Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

“Everything changed at BCC, particularly when he fell in love with Chinese,” said Madalin Price. “He was a rebel. He liked Chinese better than English.”

And then, in his senior year of high school, Price brought up the idea of the military to his father, who had risen to the rank of colonel in the Army.

He considered the Marines, then the Air Force and finally decided on the Army – only he wasn’t qualified. A recurring shoulder problem that had plagued him during high school football and swimming now became an obstacle to his career.

The Tough Road

Bruce Price stands with a group of Afghan men and boys in 2002. "He loved those kids," said his mother, Madalin Price. (Photo courtesy of Herman and Madalin Price)

After making the difficult decision to have shoulder surgery, Price joined the Army. He wanted to be an Army ranger, but in ranger school he had another injury and had to start over in a different unit. It was a rough period during which Price considered leaving the Army, his father said.

Then he was sent to Germany, and everything changed.

“He fell in love with it,” said his father.

Not only did Price find his calling in Germany, but he also met and fell in love with his future wife, a young German woman named Renate Schwarz. They dated for two years and were married in 1990. When he returned to the United States and was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado, she came with him. They would eventually have a son, Aidan, now 9.

At Fort Carson, Bruce Price trained in a pre-Special Forces program. When he passed training, he and his new bride moved, in 1992, to Fort Bragg. In the new unit, he was “totally happy,” according to his father, and he worked hours after his shifts, throwing himself into his work.

Renate Price would largely come to know the United States on her own. Bruce Price was sent to Kuwait once and Afghanistan three times during their 14-year marriage.

The third tour of duty in Afghanistan would turn out to be Price’s last.

Desert Ambush

Price would eventually earn a posthumous Silver Star award for his actions on May 15, 2004. He was leading an Army convoy into a small Afghan village near the birthplace of the Taliban.

Suddenly the convoy, which was a combined group of U.S. Special Forces and members of the Afghan National Army, was attacked from several directions, according to the narrative of the award. Price’s vehicle, the first in a line of four, was hit by grenades and machine gun fire.

He quickly made the decision to jump from the vehicle and man an exposed machine gun, both attacking the enemy and drawing fire away from his teammates. With Price standing out in the open at the machine gun, the attacking forces focused their fire on him, killing him, but allowing his comrades to find cover, the award stated.

“He was a hero – he saved lives,” said Bruce Stanford, Price’s uncle. “He was a quiet man, and he did his duty. I’ve imagined what that situation was like, and I really can’t.”

Stanford, and Prices’ parents, heard much of the story when Price’s team met them before the burial. The men, most about Price’s age or older, Stanford said, spoke of Price with respect and honor.

“I expected snot-nosed kids, and they weren’t,” said Stanford. “They were all men. They were honorable men. … It was clear honor and brotherhood. It gave me a newfound respect for the Army and for Bruce.”

The men recounted how Price had saved their lives on that day, but they also spoke of his friendliness, easy laughter and big feet, his family said. They put together a slide show and gave it to his parents on a CD.

One picture, Madalin Price said, is now framed in their home. She said she looks at every day. It shows Bruce Price with a group of Afghan boys he had befriended.

“He loved those kids,” she said.

In the picture, the boys’ faces show a mixture of excitement, confusion and fear, but the face of Price shows a content but professional smile.

“He was obviously a determined young man who had found his calling and was better because of it,” Stanford said.

Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism