U.S. Army Capt. Jeffrey Bnosky left for Saudi Arabia on Oct. 27, 1990, even though he wasn’t ordered to go.

“When Jeff first went to Fort Leonard Wood, he had a cushy job,” said his father, Joseph Bnosky Jr., of Hometown. “He first went with the engineers and then he had a job taking care of all the shooting ranges and roads and all of that.”

But as turmoil began brewing in the Middle East, officers were being sought to serve in Saudi Arabia.

“An executive officer told Jeff, ‘They’re looking. Why don’t you take it?’?” Bnosky said.

Jeff, then a first lieutenant, thought about it before making a decision.

“So Jeff volunteered actually,” Bnosky said.

Less than three months after he arrived, Jeff was killed in the Saudi Arabian desert. The Jeep he was riding in was struck by an Army truck hauling U.S. troops.

Jeff, 25, the passenger, was the first area casualty of Operation Desert Storm. His death came on Jan. 13, 1991, just days before the United States bombed Baghdad.

He was posthumously awarded the title of captain.

Jeff graduated from Tamaqua Area High School in 1983. From there, he attended Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove and earned a degree in geology. With officers’ training behind him, he began his service with the 5th Engineer Combat Battalion.

Memories of Jeff and his accomplishments flood the home where he grew up. His father displays his photos on walls and end tables. There are shots of him as a youngster, as a high school student - and in his military uniform.

“This is the last picture I have of him,” Bnosky said, pointing to a photo taken in the Middle East.

And then there’s the photo of the Jeep and the Army truck.

“That’s what happened,” Bnosky said, his eyes welling with tears.

Years later, he located the Army reservist who was driving the Army truck. They had a brief telephone conversation.

“She told me she couldn’t avoid it” because she was transporting soldiers on the deep desert sands, Bnosky said.

He also has special places for his son’s awards, ranging from Tamaqua football memorabilia to his Army medals and honors. He keeps newspaper clippings and letters from Jeff in scrapbooks, and often brings them out to read.

In the family room, antlers from Jeff’s first deer are mounted to a plaque embossed with the date in 1977. He was with his father.

Bnosky Jr. recalled how he built a tree stand big enough for the two of them to sit in when Jeff was a youngster.

If they weren’t hunting together, they were fishing. And if they weren’t hunting or fishing, they were talking about the outdoors.

“He loved being outdoors,” Bnosky said.

Memories are outside the home, too. Just a few blocks away, there is an alley named in Jeff’s memory. And there is a memorial marker at St. Jerome’s Regional School, which formerly housed Rush Elementary School.

A scholarship is awarded in Jeff’s name to a Tamaqua Raider Football team member each year, and there’s another scholarship offered at Susquehanna University. Bnosky donates an American flag that’s flown over the stadium to the Tamaqua Area School District.

Jeff’s name is also on memorials in Fort Stewart, Georgia; Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri; and Marseilles, Illinois.

He is buried at Sky-View Memorial Park in Hometown.