Hersey grad killed in action in Iraq Arlington Hts. native Paul Syverson had received Purple Heart, Bronze Star.(News)

0 Comments | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), June, 2004 | by Krishnamurthy, Madhu

Byline: Madhu Krishnamurthy Daily Herald Staff Writer Joy Syverson knew something was wrong when she heard on the radio two unnamed American soldiers were killed in Iraq Wednesday. Call it mother's intuition. Her son, Major Paul Syverson III, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient, with the airborne 5th Special Forces Group, was killed in action.

"I was at Lord & Taylor, shopping at Woodfield. Something just didn't feel right, and I drove home and tried to call my husband on my cell," she said. By the time she arrived at her Lake Zurich home at 4 p.m., an Army major was waiting to deliver the bad news. Her husband, Paul Syverson II, learned at work their son had died. Syverson was the couple's only child. He would have turned 33 in October. The...