SGT. Cory M. Endlich
June 26, 2023
Army Specialist Edward Brooks
July 9, 2023
Associated Press
Bowen lived in Cleveland but was from Berlin, Md., where he graduated in 1983 from Stephen Decatur High School. He was assigned to the 216th Engineer Battalion, a unit of the Ohio National Guard that is based in a Cleveland suburb.
Three weeks before his death, Bowen helped rescue a fellow Guardsman wounded in a rocket attack. Ron Eaton, of Lakewood, Ohio, was carrying a box of Gatorade out of a commissary at a military base about 50 miles north of Baghdad on June 16 when the men came under attack. Eaton, 35, said a grenade knocked both soldiers off their feet and sprayed shrapnel that cut him in the abdomen, liver and arm. “He was one of the first people to call me after I got out of surgery,” he said. “He wanted to hear my voice because he didn’t believe that I was OK — he called me his ‘battle buddy. ”Eaton, who is recuperating at home, said Bowen was a cook and had managed several restaurants in the Cleveland area. He said the two became close friends. “He was a big man with a big heart,” Eaton said. “He was very intimidating in size, but very soft-spoken and very kind.”
Bowen had a wife, Melanie, three children and two stepchildren.
“A lot of people were praying for him,” said his wife, Melanie Bowen. “They all wanted him to come home, and I just wanted to thank them for praying for him.”
Though Bowen had lived in the Cleveland area with his wife and children for a few years, many of his relatives remained on the Eastern Shore, said his sister, Consuella Bowen. She remembered her brother as a fun-loving person who kept in contact with his family. “He always had a smile on his face,” Consuella said. “You could never tell when he was having a down day.”
