Plant City man dies in bombing

The soldier, a father of four, is killed in an attack in Afghanistan.

By JAN WESNER, Times Staff Writer
Published August 31, 2007

Sgt. Cory Clark, 25, of Plant City was rebuilding roads and bridges in war-torn Afghanistan when he was killed Tuesday by a suicide bomber. Clark and his wife, Monica, have four small children.
	[Handout]

ADVERTISEMENT Cory Clark joined the Army in 2001, mostly to escape his job in the freezer warehouse of Food Lion supermarkets. Monica Clark said her husband dreamed of going to culinary school and opening a restaurant and hotel where they could work side by side. [Handout]

PLANT CITY - Sgt. Cory Clark had a recurring dream: He would be blown up by the enemy and die from a head wound.

Now, his family is living the nightmare.

Clark, 25, of Plant City was rebuilding roads and bridges in war-torn Afghanistan when he was killed Tuesday by a suicide bomber.

Clark was one of three soldiers who died in the attack in Jaji, near the Pakistani border. Six other soldiers and two children were wounded, the Defense Department said.

"The only thing I can tell you to describe my son, he was lovable, generous, giving, kind and compassionate," his mother, Wrenita Codrington, said Thursday.

Clark, a 2000 graduate of Durant High School in eastern Hillsborough County, had been in Afghanistan since November. His youngest child, Kor'yana, was born in December. Clark missed it because his deployment date was moved up.

He hoped to make it back for her first birthday, but was told recently that his one-year deployment was extended to 15 months.

Clark and his wife, Monica, have four young children - Kor'yana, 3-year-old twins Cory Jr. and Quentin, and her 6-year-old son, Malik.

He missed the twins' birth in 2004 because he was serving in Iraq for a year.

Clark called Codrington at her Plant City home every day that he could. He last called on Sunday, leaving a message on her cell phone: "I just wanted to tell you that I love you."

Before coming home, Clark would e-mail his mother a long list of foods he wanted her to cook, including steak and lasagna. Clark liked to cook, and he'd admonish his mama not to cheat: He wanted her peach cobbler from scratch.

Monica Clark said her husband dreamed of going to culinary school and opening a restaurant and hotel where they could work side by side.

When she last saw him, in July, he surprised her by coming home on leave for their fourth wedding anniversary. He sneaked to the door at her parents' house in rural eastern Hillsborough County.

"I was shaking and screaming like I'd won a million dollars," she said.

Codrington worried about her son the first time he was deployed, but even more so this time. During his last trip home, she couldn't bear to drive him to the airport.

"I just did not have a good feeling," she said. "I did not want him to go back over there."

This time, she realized that his job as a heavy equipment operator often took him outside the base, onto the streets of Afghanistan.

"When I finally put that together, he said, 'Aw, don't worry about me.' I didn't discuss what he did, because it gave me peace of mind. I didn't ask what he saw, because it gave me peace of mind."

Clark was assigned to the 585th Engineer Pipeline Company from Fort Lewis, Wash.

Codrington's stepson, Air Force Sgt. Kedrick Wright, is escorting Clark's body to Tampa. After the funeral, Wright will return to Iraq.

Gloria Chamberlin, Clark's guidance counselor at Marshall Middle School and Durant, still talked to him regularly. After his twins were born, he'd sometimes call her and say, "Mrs. Chamberlin, I can handle Iraq but I can't handle these twins."

He shared with Chamberlin the stories about Iraq and Afghanistan that his mother didn't want to hear. He told stories about the children there, once recounting an especially upsetting incident in Iraq.

"His second day out, they received sniper fire," she said. "He and others had returned fire and in the process a 4-year-old girl was killed."

Later, Clark told Chamberlin about being reprimanded for giving food and water to children.

Clark loved kids. He and Monica had dated off and on in high school, and it was during one of those off times that she got pregnant with Malik. Clark had raised him as his own and promised Malik he would adopt him "if it's the last thing I do," Codrington said. The paperwork was being drawn up when he was killed.

Clark joined the Army in April 2001, mostly to escape his job in the freezer warehouse of Food Lion supermarkets.

"He was proud to have made it in the Army and be doing something with his life while many of the kids (he knew) from middle school are not serving their country but serving time," Chamberlin said.

Funeral service

The funeral for Army Sgt. Cory Clark will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 8 at Plant City Church of God, 2103 Mud Lake Road.

[Last modified August 31, 2007, 00:03:50]