Soldier from Idaho killed in bombing

A local man with family from Post Falls to Orofino, Idaho, died earlier this week during the apparent suicide bombing at a military base near Mosul, Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Darren VanKomen, 33, was the youngest of 10 children.

“He’s my baby,” said Betty Clemens of Orofino. His next-oldest brother is a Clearwater County Sheriff’s deputy and an Army veteran of the Gulf War.

The day VanKomen was killed, his mother opened her door to find a National Guard Army officer, a chaplain and three local police officers standing there.

“I know what you’re going to tell me,” Clemens recalls telling them.

VanKomen grew up in Lewiston and later moved with family to Culdesac, Idaho, where he graduated from high school in 1991. Right after high school, he joined the Army.

“He was good at computers,” Clemens said. “He built my computer for me.”

VanKomen was deployed to Iraq in October after serving several years at Fort Lewis, Wash., as part of the Stryker Brigade. VanKomen worked in supply and had recently been promoted and re-enlisted for another six years of duty.

Clemens asked her son to build her a computer so they could stay in touch by e-mail. Once there, he wasn’t allowed to say very much in his e-mail messages, she said. She did receive a letter from him Nov. 10 when he was in Fallujah.

“He said things were pretty bad. He said, ‘Mom, I’m praying every day. I’m praying for everyone back home, too, even for their finances.’ “

She said he wasn’t nervous about going.

“He wanted to go. He said, ‘Mom, that’s what I’ve been trained for.’ I said, ‘My goodness. Look at what’s going on over there.’ ”

But her son was unwavering.

“If I die, it’s God’s will,” she recalled him saying.

“He was supposed to be coming home around the 28th this month on a few days’ leave,” Clemens said.

He leaves behind a wife, Stephaine VanKomen in Olympia, and a 12-year old stepdaughter, Chelsea.

“That little girl was his world,” said his sister, Tina McDaniel, 40, of Culdesac.

VanKomen met his wife at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where she was visiting. Stephaine told her sister-in-law she would marry him just moments after they met.

“She thought I was crazy. I didn’t even know his first name,” Stephaine VanKomen said. Nevertheless, he called her for a date the same day and they went out later that night. They were married six months later.

A military service at Fort Lewis is planned for Wednesday, after which his body will be cremated.

Bill VanKomen, 45, of Post Falls, said his brother was a perfectionist who will be missed not only by his family and friends but by the Army.

“Honest to God, he was one hell of a worker,” he said. “I know they are going to miss him over there. The whole family is the same way. You take pride in what you do and you do it right.”