Staff Sgt Courtney Antwaine Hollinsworth
Born: October 18, 1980
Died: September 9, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq
Staff Sgt. Courtney Hollinsworth of Yonkers was a graduate of Saunders Trades and Technical High School. As a youth he played baseball, but once he was outfitted in catcher’s gear he could barely move, let alone catch a baseball, so the coach to suggested another position. He loved to read, cook and eat and he would arrive at the home of his aunt and uncle just in time for a second dinner. Courtney enlisted in the Army soon after graduation. His mom learned that her only son had decided to join the Army when she came home and found a recruiter sitting at her kitchen table. Because he was only 17, she had to sign the papers but she had to take some time and talk to her family about it. Courtney pleaded his case and his grandmother counseled told his mom to let the boy go. They thought he’d be back soon, because surely they wouldn’t keep him. He was overweight and lazy they mused. So the papers were signed and Courtney went off to basic training. By the time he graduated a few months later, his mother and grandmother could hardly recognize him. For Courtney, who had tried and quit many things throughout high school, the Army turned out to be the first thing he decided to stick. He served in Afghanistan in 2002 and was part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He had begun a second tour in Iraq in February, shortly after he married Stephanie Errebo, who previously served in the Army. He so worried about his sister hat he told his family to make sure that his 18-year-old sister, Nicole, finished college if something were to happen to him in Iraq. He was serving a second tour in Iraq that began in February. He was was killed at age 26 in Baghdad when the truck he was riding in came under attack from grenades and a roadside bomb. He laves behind his wife, Stephanie. his parents, Antonio and Hope Hollinsworth Coaxum. grandparents, Sylvester and Audrey Hollinsworth and Mary A. Coaxum and the late Henry Coaxum, sister, Nicole and stepdaughter, Emma Grace, great grandmother, Evaleena Hollinsworth. Courtney was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for meritorious service in combat.
Army
1st Squadron
4th Cavalry Regiment
4th Brigade Combat Team
1st Infantry Division
Fort Riley, Kansas
Burial is at Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton, New York – Sec 23 Site 286
The Staff Sgt Courtney Antwaine Hollinsworth by Freedom Remembered, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
