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On October 14, 2008, Baker High School graduate Preston Medley died in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan.
The 23-year-old had a one-year-old daughter and a child on the way when his family was notified of his death. The baby was born on December 14, and named Preston.
Medley was in a truck with two other soldiers, Specialist Stephen Fortunato and Cory Bertrand, in the Qazi Bandeh region of Afghanistan. Medley was posthumously promoted to sergeant. His body was transported from Afghanistan to Tallahassee and then escorted by Patriot Guard motorcycle riders to his funeral service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Crestview.
Medley, a member of the Baker School football and broadcast program, tallied as one of the 2,459 American deaths in the war, which stretched over three decades.
Medley’s grandfather told the Associated Press that he and his grandson, a corporal at the time of his death, planned to go on an elk hunting trip in Colorado when he returned from his deployment.
