NEWPORT, N.H. (AP) – Shortly before he was deployed to Iraq last summer, Army Spc. Justin Rollins spoke with designated hitter David Ortiz before a Red Sox game, then watched him hit a home run.
“Justin had said, ‘If he hits this ball out of the park, I can go to Iraq and die a happy man,”‘ said family friend Kathryn Hanson, who spoke with Rollins’ father Wednesday. Skip Rollins was at the game with his son.
Rollins, 22, died last week in Iraq and will be buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, with a baseball autographed by Ortiz.
Ortiz, who learned of Rollins’ death while at spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., remembered the encounter and said he had promised to dedicate a home run to Rollins.
“He was such a good kid,” Ortiz said, in a report posted on mlb.com, the Web site for Major League Baseball. “He came to Fenway to watch a game and he wanted to meet me. It was going to be his last game at Fenway because he was going to Iraq. He came by the clubhouse and I talked to him for a while. He just seemed like he was so full of life.”
Ortiz later hit a two-run, walkoff homer to win the June 24 game against the Phillies in the 10th inning.
“I told him at the time that that home run I was going to dedicate to him for going to Iraq,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz also gave Rollins an autographed ball, which the soldier cherished, said Hanson, who taught Rollins at Newport High School.
“It blows our minds that he would have remembered that encounter,” she told the New Hampshire Union Leader.
After learning of Rollins’ death, Ortiz promised to send two autographed balls and a signed jersey to his family. One ball, inscribed “To Justin Rollins, rest in peace. God bless, David Ortiz,” will be buried with him.
Rollins was one of six U.S. soldiers killed March 5 by a roadside bomb in Samarra, Iraq. The 2003 Newport High School graduate was an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne and had recently been promoted to squad sniper. At his funeral, he will be posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with Valor, two Purple Hearts, and several other Army awards.
The funeral will be Saturday at the South Congregational Church in Newport. Visiting hours are Friday at the Newport Opera House.
Gov. John Lynch has ordered flags on all state buildings to be lowered to half-staff Friday and Saturday.
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