Sometimes, war ends in heartbreak. It was on Easter Sunday when Wendy Radwan, who owns Santa Monica-based Taxi! Taxi! with her husband, received the worst news of her life — her younger brother, Staff Sgt. Jesse Williams, was shot and killed by an enemy sniper on April 8.
Williams, who was buried on April 19 in his hometown of Santa Rosa, was 25 years old. He is survived by his wife of two years, Sonya, and their daughter, Amaya, who will celebrate her first birthday on May 22.
A tearful Radwan recalled when she first learned that her brother, who enlisted in the Army before 9/11, would be deployed to Iraq for his first tour during the initial stages of the Iraq War.
That fear stemmed from family history — Radwan’s grandfather died as a prisoner of war in World War II on April 8, 1945 — exactly 62 years before Williams died.
“Every time we received an e-mail or phone call, it was a sigh of relief that he was OK,” Radwan said.
Though he spent much of his life in Santa Rosa, Williams loved Santa Monica, visiting his sister in the city during his honeymoon a few years ago.
Williams received a Purple Heart during his first tour. About three weeks before his death, Williams was credited with singlehandedly saving two of his fellow soldiers when he pulled them out of a burning vehicle, his gloves melting onto his hands in the process, Radwan said.
Radwan remembers her brother often speaking of the one thing he was afraid of — a sniper, because he couldn’t see them.
It would be a sniper that would claim his life.
“I am very, very proud of him because he was a very patriotic young man,” Radwan said.“All he ever wanted to do was help other people and serve his country and I am so proud of the accomplishments he made in his short life.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 12, 2007. Read the original PDF.