SGT William Joshua Rechenmacher was born on January 7, 1983 in Okeechobee, FL. He was the firstborn child of Joanne and William "Rhett" Rechenmacher. His parents described him as an "awesome kid who didn't really get into a lot of trouble." There was the usual adolescent mischief but never anything serious. His parents taught him at an early age to flush the toilet when he was done using it. One day, his mom and dad heard the toilet flushing over and over again. They went to see what was happening and observed Josh hovering over the bowl as he flushed it again. When it was refilled, he reached for another of his dad's sockets and threw it in to be flushed down like all the rest. He also loved to play with can goods. So much so that his parents had to install fasteners on the cupboards so Josh couldn't get to them. Josh wasn't giving up without a fight, according to Rhett. "He figured out how to use the screwdriver and take the hinges off," Rhett remembers. "One day we caught him as he was trying to screw the hinges back on. Josh knew how to work the system." Whenever his little sister would aggravate him, he'd get mad and hit her. His sister would hit him and then when he hit her back she would scream and he would get into trouble. Then one day his Nana (Joanne's Mom) told her to watch them and sure enough Sara would hit him first. His parents yelled at him that he wasn't permitted to hit his sister. Later he was caught holding her down while his friends hit her. When he got caught he'd reply, "But, I'm not hitting her." Josh had a younger sister - Sara, a half-sister named Zoe, and five step-brothers: Owen, Evan, Ronald Jr., Robert, and Ryan (and later brother-in-law Brad, Sara's husband). Josh and his younger sister, Sara, were close in childhood. They were only 14 months apart and became inseparable after their parents' divorce. Josh was very protective of his little sister and she was protective of him as they got older. They felt like all they had was each other. Josh was a lady's man, which kept Sara busy. When Josh was in 4th grade, his mom was helping out with the class and they were heading to the library when one girl told he that Josh had a butt worth framing. When Sara's friends found out that she was Josh's sister, they'd gasp at how "lucky she was to have such a hot brother." A lot of times they would become her friends just to get close to Josh. Josh would pick on her like all older brothers do, but no one else was allowed to mess with his little sis. Sara and Zoe had blonde hair and it just so happened that Josh LOVED telling blonde jokes. He was constantly teasing them but wouldn't let anyone else do it. He would even correct his father about how he treated his sisters. He would stand up for them even if they were wrong, before finding all the facts. He had a tough shell but he was very sensitive. Sara says her first memory of her brother was when she was 3 or 4 years old. "He busted my head open. I would sit on his back and he would buck up like a horse. After a few times, he saw that I liked it and then did a huge buck. I went flying into the stand-up speakers and hit my head on the corner. I needed three stitches." Josh was an inquisitive youth. At the hospital, the doctor had to ask Josh to step back numerous times because he was getting in the way by trying to watch him sew in the stitches. Later his father, Rhett, had sliced off the ends of four out of five fingers and had to go to the hospital to get stitches. The next day, Rhett had to go to a specialist and took Josh with him. The doctor unwrapped the bandages exposing Rhett's mangled and sewn together fingers. Again, Josh was right there watching the whole thing, enthralled. He looked at his dad's fingers then looked at his dad and said, "you did a good job on them, dad." He thought the whole thing was entertaining. Josh was a perpetually happy person. He never seemed to let things get to him and that brightened up most of the people around him. Ask anyone that knew him and they'll tell you about the "s***-eating grin" he always had. At a very young age, Josh came to love the movie "Top Gun" with Tom Cruise. By the time he was three years old, he had gone through three tapes. He'd go through more tapes and later DVDs as he grew older. "Maverick", Cruise's character in the movie, would have a big impact on his life. As long as he can remember, he was going to serve his country in the military - to feel that need, "the need for speed." By the time Josh's son, Will, was one month old, he was also addicted to the movie. He also liked Independence Day, especially the end. Sara and Josh would mouth the part where Will Smith and Jeff Goldbloom are trying to leave the alien spaceship. Josh would be Will Smith and Sara would be Jeff Goldbloom: Sara: They're chasing us. Josh: You think?! A few hits by the aliens and some risky maneuvering... Sara: I think we're hit. We're hit. Josh: We're not hit. We're not hit. Stop side seat driving!! Sara: Left, left. Tunnel exit, left! Josh: Where the hell do you think I'm going? Sara: They're closing up on us. Are they closing? Josh: Shut up!! Shut up!!
And they barely make it out before the ship explodes. Of course, half the time, Josh would say all the lines. He knew them by heart. At five years old, he played soccer and then flag football. Then in the 2nd grade he started playing baseball. He played catcher and 3rd base mostly. In 1993 when they moved to TX he continued to play baseball and also starting playing football. One time while playing football he broke his wrist but that didn't stop him. He was unable to play quarter back but he did play in a different position. Then there was the time during baseball season, he was up to bat and got hit in the head with the ball, he ran to 1st base then fell down. He also enjoyed track and football in middle school. He also enjoyed playing roller hockey in the street with his friends. At night, he would get together with his friends and play hide and seek or just play pranks on Sara. He loved to draw airplanes and talk about how he'd fly them one day. His father was a mechanic for American Airlines and Josh could tell you just by looking at it what kind of plane it was and what airlines it was. Josh was a diehard Atlanta Braves fan. He never missed a game and even arranged the living room so he could mimic the game as it was played…in the house. He loved music. One of his early favorites was Alabama, which he called "Amabama" because he couldn't pronounce it. He was so excited when he got to go to an Alabama concert when he was about 4 years old. He would blast "Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)" and "Song of the South" from his room over and over again. He loved all music, but country was his favorite. You'd be hard pressed to find without his signature cowboy hat on. His My Space page had the current his favorite song "Yee Haw" by Jake Owen on it. He had "Redneck" on the back of his big 'ole Dodge Ram 2500 that he got after his first tour in Iraq. His nickname was Yoshi, a character from the Mario Brothers game. Yoshi's character would scoop up other characters with his huge tongue and either swallow them or spit them out, knocking over other characters. One day, his step-father Ron walked into the living room where Josh was sleeping. In his sleep, he was sticking his tongue out in much the same fashion. From that day on, the Yoshi nickname would stick. He attended high school at Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, FL. He did pretty good in school, his mom says, until he discovered girls. Up to about that point he was an A & B student, active in baseball and football but lettering instead in his favorite subject - Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). The JROTC program was run by the Air Force, which put Josh that much closer to becoming "Maverick". He took a lot of pride in his uniform. Each night prior to having to wear his uniform, he would stay up late ironing it and shining his shoes. When Sara joined JROTC, he would help with her shoes as well. He would shine his shoes every night for what seemed like hours. "I even had the black stains in the carpet," said his mom, "and, no, it was NOT black carpet." He would also stomp through the house and yard practicing his routine until he drove his parents nuts or he went to bed. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) John Campbell, Josh's JROTC instructor, remembers Josh as a very motivated and focused student. "He came in a freshman absolutely gung ho," recalls Campbell. "He joined the mail drill team and learned his drill movements in a flash. Military and military-related things were right down his alley. He loved to wear his uniform. He was one of those guys that looked like he had just walked off an Air Force recruiting poster. He always tried to do his best, particularly with the military stuff. He took to it like a duck to water." After Josh joined the Army, he went back and visited his old JROTC program. "He was so proud when he joined the Army. He was really all for being a Soldier and proud of the job he had gotten," Campbell said. "He spent a day at the school addressing the classes about his thought process for joining the Army." At this time in his life Joanne was driving a school bus and remembers one day going into Forrest to pick up a group of kids for another driver. "The girls were going nuts and asking me how I knew Josh since I had pictures of Josh and Sara on my bus," recalls Joanne. "I told them that I was his mother and they were like 'no way, oh he's so cute.'" During his sophomore year of high school he met the girl that would become the mother of his son, Lesley Marie Polston. They met at one of their church youth group meetings. When Lesley first started going to the youth group, the girls made sure she knew about Josh. He was the cute boy in the group that everyone wanted. After a meeting one night in March of 1999, everyone went to the home of another member. He said "hey" to her and she responded the same way, "hey." They began talking and later exchanged phone numbers. She came to love the way he looked at life and how he had a goofy nature about him. He was a little gun shy about dating due to a failed relationship a few years prior. But, they hit it off and became close. In June 1999, Josh found out he was going to be a father. He was 16 years old. William (Will) Douglas Rechenmacher was born on February 13, 2000. He looked like the spitting image of his father with a slight variation in the nose. If one were to look at pictures of Will and Josh when they were the same age, you'd have a difficult time telling them apart. To this day, he even has the strong will of his father. In January 2000, Josh dropped out of high school to take care of his son and earned his GED from Florida Community College at Jacksonville. At the time, Josh and Lesley were living with his parents. His mom helped him take care of Will while Lesley worked. He realized he wasn't providing for his son and needed to make some tough choices. Being retired Navy himself; his step-father discouraged him from going into the Navy. The Air Force at the time wasn't accepting GEDs. Josh joined the US Army as an imagery analyst and on April 21, 2000, shipped off to basic training. He was 17 years old. His whole life had led up to that point. While at Basic Training, Josh begged his parents more than once to get him out. He was having a hard with it all, but the Army was determined to give him some discipline and turn him into a man. His parents refused to help him. He ended up loving his job and the Army life. His mom said that one of the proudest moments in her life was watching her oldest son take the oath to serve his country. After basic training he went to Fort Huachuca for Imagery Analyst Advanced Individual Training (AIT). His parents urged him to go into Military Intelligence because it would be safer. His JROTC time allowed him to enter the military as an E2. If he had joined JROTC six months earlier, he would have come in as an E3, Private First Class. In November 2000, Josh and Lesley got married. After AIT, Josh got stationed with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, but Lesley stayed behind because of her job. They had a rocky relationship and she wasn't sure that she wanted to risk a job on something that didn't seem to be lasting. In the meantime, she continued to live with his parents who helped to raise little Will. Unfortunately, Lesley and Josh grew apart and ended their marriage in divorce. Josh loved the Army life. He was good at his job and he took it seriously. He wasn't comfortable sitting behind a desk. One of the first things that recruiters teach is to never volunteer for anything. Josh volunteered for everything. He was the first one to raise his hand. He had a grin that lifted the spirits of everyone around him when there wasn't much to smile about. According to an NCO who worked with Josh, SFC Christine Gilson, "He was always in a good mood with a smile on his face, never complained about duties or working. The cowboy hat was like a trademark around the Barracks. [Josh] loved being a Soldier (to the core); it was almost as if [the Army] was his calling in life. Josh will always be remembered as a happy person, content with himself." In early 2004, Josh's unit was sent to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom II. He called back to his mom on numerous occasions and tell her about what good work was being done there that the news was not telling us. Josh was a Imagery Analyst and worked behind a deck. He was tired and mad that his friends were getting shot at or killed while he sat behind a desk, so he volunteered for some convoy missions. On one of his calls home Joanne recalls his voice being shaky because he had just returned from his first mission. He explained how similar it was to parts of Black Hawk Down. But, Josh seemed to carry luck with him wherever he went. He liked to go to the local "habib store", a store run by local Iraqis on the camp. He went there frequently with his buddies whenever they'd ask. One particular night he decided not to go and stayed in his room. A mortar attack that night leveled the building he would have been in. During another incident, a mortar landed next to him but didn't detonate. All these incidents were changing him. He was beginning to grow up. He wanted to settle down and start a family. In March 2006, Josh met Brittney Sparks through his best friend. He was really shy at first and didn't really know how to act around her. He was going through a divorce and that surely played a huge part in deciding whether to get involved again. They started off as just friends and talked often. They spent a lot of time together at Fort Hood. Brittney thought he was an amazing guy and fell in love in with him instantly. "He was always caring and would be there for anyone no matter what…a happy-go-lucky guy," she recalls. "He always had a smile on his face and just liked to have a good time." Josh picked Brittney up at her 2006 prom in his HUGE white Dodge Ram 2500. He was so proud of that thing. Josh was taking her down a dark, windy road with trees everywhere and decides to turn off the headlights and sit out on the window while his truck coasted down the road. Brittney kept screaming for him to get back in the truck and he'd just laugh. Josh was more scared about this tour and with good reason. This tour he had volunteered for the PSD (Personal Security Detachment Group), which meant that he would be doing over 300 convoy's. "Mom," he told Joanne, "you gotta understand that it is not a matter of IF we get hit... it's a matter of WHEN we get hit." On October 9, 2006, Josh was again deployed to Iraq. For his first deployment, his father had taken care of most of his affairs: the paperwork, wills and other necessities inherent with every deployment. This time, he wanted his mother and step-father to handle everything and was very meticulous about what needed to be done and where he wanted to be buried if something happened to him. There is only one thing harder than going over your child's burial wishes and that is having to make them. On November 12th, Josh had asked Brittney to marry him. She accepted. They were going to get married during his Rest and Recuperation (R&R) in July 2007, around the same time frame Sara was expecting to give birth to his nephew. For his second tour in Iraq, Josh was assigned as a gunner on a High Mobility Multi Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) - or humvee. His mom called his team the Four Musketeers: Specialist Ashley, the driver; Specialist York, the back up driver; Sergeant Bates the truck commander; and Josh, the gunner. On January 18th, 2007, Josh's group had to go on a convoy mission. Ashley was driving but York (Josh's best friend)and Bates(his NCO and very close friend) were not there. They were in a class for something. According to the Pentagon, an IED exploded near his vehicle as they were conducting a patrol in Baghdad's streets. The force of the blast practically blew the gunner's hatch off the HMMWV, killing Josh instantly. He was 24 years and 11 days old. NEWS ABOUT SGT Josh Rechenmacher Arlington National Cemetary Page
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