Editor’s note: This story is the first in a five-part series highlighting five ISU veterans who are being inducted into the Gold Star Hall war memorial on Nov. 12.

Of the confirmed 3,846 U.S. military deaths in the Iraq conflict, individual stories sometimes only get local mention and fanfare, then slowly the family members and friends will be the sole holders of memories of the individual.

Lt. Col. Paul J. Finken, of Earling, will be joining other ISU veterans from World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. Criteria for this honor, besides military service, is registration as a full-time student at Iowa State and must have died while on active duty.

“Since the Iraq war is ongoing, the names [of ISU veterans] will be placed on to a temporary plaque and then placed on the wall in the hall,” said Kathy Svec, marketing director for the Memorial Union.

Finkin died Nov. 2, 2005, as a result of an explosion from an improvised explosive device, near Baghdad, while on his second tour.

“Paul was just the most creative and positive person you could ever meet,” said Joan Henscheid, Finkin’s sister and resident of Clive. “He was very family oriented and funny.”

She said Finken was “active in the scouts,” and obtained the level of Eagle Scout. He also “watched ‘M*A*S*H’ every night.”

Henscheid described her brother as creative and humorous.

“Even though he was far off in distance, you’d never know it,” she said.

She said his calls and letters really helped the whole family out in his time of absence.

“It was what they needed, really,” she said.

According to Finken’s official Web site, he was an infantry officer in the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Finkin was awarded many medals, including the NATO Service Medal, two Bronze Star Medals (one given posthumously) and the Purple Heart (posthumously). He was the highest-ranking officer from Iowa to have been killed in combat.

Finkin was a 1984 graduate of Harlan Community High School, attended Iowa State during the 1984-85 school year, and then transferred to U.S. Military Academy at West Point in N.Y., from which he graduated in 1989.

“He loved his men at the cost of his life,” Henscheid said. “He wouldn’t expect anybody to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself. That’s the heroism of himself, right there. He would want to be remembered as a peacekeeper.”