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He believed in what he was fighting for

The adventurous man from New Port Richey was going to become a father in July.

By MARY SPICUZZA
Published March 31, 2006

	[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]
	Wearing his son's dog tags, Dave Rowe grieves Thursday as he recalls his son, Army Sgt. Michael D. Rowe, who died when an explosive device detonated near his Humvee in Rutbah, Iraq. "They saidthey got to him right away. They pulled him out. He just looked over, smiled, that was it, " Dave Rowe said. "I firmly believe that he smiled because God's hand was coming down to take him away. I want the world to know how proud I am of him," his father said. That was always what Michael Rowe wanted: To make his father proud.
	[Photo from the Rowe family] A family photo shows Michael Rowe and his wife, Rebecca, who is now pregnant. She was writing him a birthday message on myspace.com when soldiers arrived to tell her the grim news. "I know it's somebody unusual when they go to the front door," she said. "When I opened the door, they didn't have to say anything." Rowe, a sergeant in the 46th Engineer Battallion, Warrior Brigade, based in Fort Polk, La., was the only soldier killed in the explosion. "He wanted to be the best," Rebecca Rowe said Thursday. "He was so enthusiastic about life."

NEW PORT RICHEY - They were kids.

He dazzled her with his fearlessness.

Michael Rowe was always doing crazy things like jumping from a 70-foot high tree into the Anclote River or diving from the bridge on State Road 54.

"He wanted to be the best," his wife, Rebecca, said Thursday, his dog tag hanging around her neck. "He was so enthusiastic about life."

Rowe was killed Tuesday when an explosive device detonated near his Humvee as he led an Army convoy in Rutbah, Iraq.

He would have turned 24 on Wednesday.

His wife, who is pregnant, was writing to him on myspace.com Tuesday night when two soldiers came to her New Port Richey home.

"I know it's somebody unusual when they go to the front door," she said. "When I opened the door they didn't have to say anything."

She and Rowe's sister, Megan, went with the soldiers to tell his parents, Dave and Marcy, who also live in New Port Richey.

"They said they got to him right away, they pulled him out. He just looked over, smiled, that was it," Dave Rowe said. "I firmly believe that he smiled because God's hand was coming down to take him away."

Rowe, a sergeant in the 46th Engineer Battalion, Warrior Brigade, based in Fort Polk, La., was the only soldier killed in the explosion, his family said. He is the 116th soldier from Florida to die in Iraq.

"I want the world to know how proud I am of him," his father said.

That was always what Michael wanted, to make his father proud.

The Rowe family moved to Florida from Buffalo, N.Y., in 1991. The little boy who loved cheering for the Buffalo Bills and watching He-Man and She-Ra wasn't exactly a perfect student, though his mother says he could have been.

But he loved action and adventure. He was a diver and swimmer at Gulf High School. He would try anything.

What his friends and teachers remember most is his passion for life.

"He was just a go-getter, so much talent," said his high school photography teacher, Lisa Barrus. "He was a good student, he always took risks with his photography."

Barrus said that Rowe once photographed some buildings but the background didn't look good. So he painted it red and created a mixed-media project.

"He was just one of those kids who kept going at it and going at it," she said.

Michael joined the military in 2001, the year he graduated from Gulf High School.

He first enlisted in the National Guard, and was in training on 9/11.

"When our sergeant told us about what happened, I was shocked, because America is like this large power," he told the St. Petersburg Times in 2002. "Who would attack us, I kept thinking. I think I'm much closer to my family and the people in my company because of what happened."

He enlisted in the Army about three years ago, and had just re-enlisted for another four years.

The Rowe family says Michael loved the Army. He believed in it.

"He believed in fighting for our freedom," said his father, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

Rowe was deployed to Iraq on Oct. 21. A couple of weeks later, Rebecca learned she was pregnant.

Michael was so excited when he heard the news that he sent his father two cigars so they could smoke them together when the baby was born.

Nevaeh Elizabeth Rowe is due July 12. Her name is Heaven spelled backward.

Rebecca said she's thankful to have family support but misses the man she says was the best thing that ever happened to her, a man who was always there to help anybody.

"Anything that I was trying to do, he always let me know that there was more effort," she said, crying. "He had so much drive in him."

Researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Mary Spicuzza can be reached at 869-6241 or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6241. Her e-mail address is mspicuzza@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 31, 2006, 01:08:15]