Patrolman Daniel Brian Crabtree

A native of Hartville, he served as a police officer in Hartville before joining the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department, where he was a member of the Honor Guard and a sniper on the SWAT team.

He entered the Army Reserve in 1992 and joined the Ohio Army National Guard in 1993 as an administrative specialist, later retraining as a military policeman with the 135th Military Police Company in Brook Park. He joined the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in March 2002 and earned the green beret in May 2004.

A Sgt. 1st Class and Special Forces weapons sergeant, he deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom with the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula, where his detachment trained the Al Kut SWAT police force and advised it on more than 35 missions. On June 8, 2006, at age 31, he was killed when a roadside bomb exploded next to his vehicle during a combat patrol near Al Kut.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart and Meritorious Service Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. His decorations also include the Army Achievement Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Parachutist Badge and Special Forces Tab.

He is remembered by the Sgt. 1st Class Daniel B. Crabtree Memorial Road, a brick at Veterans Memorial Park in Green, and Daniel Crabtree Boulevard, the section of Broad Boulevard at Third Street in Cuyahoga Falls named for him in June 2018.

Sources: Green Beret Foundation memorial; Akron Legal News, January 20, 2015; WTAM, June 6, 2018.