Bremerton High grad killed on Stryker patrol

By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Two months ago, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Lee Burbank gave up a relatively safe assignment directing troop enlistment in Iraq for a place on the front lines.

The Bremerton High School graduate was supposed to come home late next week for an eight-month leave. His wife had booked vacations to Disneyland, British Columbia and Texas. Now, she has to plan a funeral.

Burbank, 34, and 10 other men were riding in a Stryker vehicle, one of three returning to an Army base south of Mosul after a Monday morning patrol.

He was "in charge of the Stryker" and was sitting in the "tank-commander hatch," his body half inside and half outside the vehicle, said his father-in-law, Brant Culley.

A truck loaded with explosives — and boxes of vegetables to conceal the bomb — plowed in between the first Stryker vehicle and the one Burbank was in and detonated, Culley said. Burbank was killed and his best friend, who was driving the Stryker, was critically injured; the other men in the vehicle received minor injuries and have returned to duty, Culley said.

The explosion left a 5-foot-deep crater, he said.

Burbank, who was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 14th Calvary Regiment at Fort Lewis, was "a soldier's soldier ... a total straight-up, straight-out" kind of guy, his father-in-law said.

An avid hunter and fisherman — and a voracious reader who especially liked science fiction — Burbank was "pretty torn up" about recent events in Iraq.

"He's seen a lot of combat recently and that was pretty tough, losing a couple men under his command," Culley said. "He was really looking forward to coming home."
 
Burbank grew up in Oregon's Grand Ronde area before moving to Bremerton as a teenager, Culley said. After graduating from high school, he met Shawna Culley at the Bremerton Public Library, and the two married in April 1995. Less than two years later, he joined the Army.

"He's all soldier. He's so gung-ho, it's unbelievable," Culley said. "He's [been commended] everywhere he's been, and he's risen through the ranks quicker than anybody."

But it was his honesty and reserved ways that drew others to him, Culley said. "The rest of the soldiers loved him," he said.

Though Culley and his daughter worried about Burbank's decision to leave headquarters for battle, they weren't surprised he volunteered.

"He was called to serve, and he served valiantly," Culley said. "I lost a great friend and a great son. He was a great leader."

In addition to his wife and wife's family, Burbank is survived by his mother, who lives in Texas, his father, who lives in Oregon, and two sisters, one in Texas and one in New Mexico, Culley said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com