1st Sgt. Miguel A. Wilson

BONHAM — When 1st Sgt. Miguel Anthony Wilson, 36, said good-bye to his mother a month ago, he assured her he was happy in his job and proud of his missions and what he was doing in the military. He told her he knew there was danger and if something happened, he would want his family to celebrate his life and not mourn him.

But Friday, when a military detail, including a chaplain, came to her home in Bonham. The words they spoke to her seemed like a dream from which she thought she would awake any moment. They said her son died Friday in Abu Sayf, Iraq while he was rescuing another soldier. His mother learned later another soldier was drowning and her son jumped in to save him. “Later on we found out he did save him,” she said. “He didn’t take his gear off (when he jump in the water) which those back packs weigh 65 pounds. He just dived in and saved his fellow soldier and the weight of that back pack kept him under and then the current, they said, was strong and he drowned.”

Wanda Wilson said, the whole time the chaplain was speaking to her she just kept saying “no, no, no, no.” And, even now, though in her head she understands what happened, a little part of her still doesn’t believe it. “I don’t think it will become real to me until I go to the viewing and I know that is going to be hard for me,” she said.

First Sgt. Wilson was a 1990 graduate of Bonham High School where he was a member of the Warriors football team. His stepfather Vincent Neal says 1st Sgt. Wilson played corner back and running back. His father Michael Cooke, of Denison, remembers that Miguel stood out in soccer, played a little basketball and also ran track.

Wanda said through her tears, “Today, I’m fine. I’m not sad. I’m a very proud mother.”

His memorial service will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Fort Hood’s 19th Street Chapel with interment at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen at 3 p.m.

A second memorial service will be held in Bonham at 3 p.m., Dec. 2 at the First Baptist Church of Bonham. The Patriot Guard Riders will serve as escorts for the family.