A ‘gentle giant': Maryland soldier killed in training to be honored in Memorial Day service
The first piece of evidence that Jacob Mullen wanted to serve in the military is a kindergarten assignment: 'If I were president, I would be in the Army,' the lined paper says below a young boy's drawing of a soldier.
The glamour of military service in video games and other media might have played a role in his ambitions to enlist, but as he got older, Mullen was just 'very much into the idea of serving his country,' his mother, Linda Mullen, said.
It also came from his love for being a part of a team, she said. When he wrestled for Parkside High School, he always sought to score for the team. He wasn't a football star but loved the game for the camaraderie. He was big on lifting weights and would always hit the gym with his friends.
'If they were lifting twice a day, he lifted twice a day,' Linda said. As a freshman in high school, he wrestled at around 145 pounds; by his death in January, he weighed twice as much, stood 6-foot-2 and had lifted cars in strongman events.
'He was a big man, but he could be so tender,' said his mother. His family always called him a 'gentle giant.'
The Fruitland native, who ended up serving at Fort Stewart Army Base in Georgia, will be honored this year at a statewide Memorial Day service at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. He and a fellow service member, Staff Sgt. Shelbe Butner, were killed in January during a training operation. Mullen was 25, and Butner was 28.
They died during a nighttime driving exercise at Fort Stewart, which is the largest Army post east of the Mississippi River. The 3rd Infantry Division said in a news release that the two motor transport officers were training 'under blackout conditions' in a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which rolled off the road into standing water.
The night before, three Army personnel on a training mission in Washington were among the dozens killed when a commercial airliner collided with their Black Hawk helicopter in midair. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew L. Eaves, a Southern Maryland resident who was one of the helicopter's pilots, will also be honored at this year's ceremony.
Four Army soldiers from Fort Stewart who had been deployed to Lithuania were also found dead last month after they and their vehicle went missing during a training mission. Three of them were located, dead, in the mud-encased armored vehicle after rescue crews pulled it out from 15 feet of water.
Monday's statewide Memorial Day ceremony at the Timonium cemetery, which kicks off at 10 a.m., will include addresses from U.S. Rep. for Maryland Johnny Olszewski Jr. and Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead, adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard.
In addition to Mullen and Eaves, eight other Armed Forces members who died while serving on active duty will be honored:
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jack M. Brown, of Crofton, died May 22, 2024;
Army Lt. Col. Mickey M. West Jr., of Aberdeen, died June 4, 2024;
Army Pfc. Charles M. Hyman, of Baltimore, died June 8, 2024;
Army Staff Sgt. Sean A. Lange, of New Market, died August 25, 2024;
Air Force Master Sgt. Justin S. Keirn, of Bel Air, died October 16, 2024;
Air Force Senior Airman Gregory K. Riley Jr., of Aberdeen, died November 17, 2024;
Army Spc. William T. Brown III, of Baltimore, died December 17, 2024;
And Army Staff Sgt. Jared A. Finnerty, of Pasadena, died February 16, 2025.
Next year's honorees already include three more service members who died in March and April, including Army Pfc. Davon T. Moore, an Owings Mills resident. Last year, the annual ceremony honored Maryland Air National Guard Tech Sgt. Lacy O'Neill and Makai Cummings, two Baltimore-area natives who were killed in separate car crashes.
Colleagues of Cummings, a Baltimore City College lacrosse standout, and O'Neill, an outdoors enthusiast, had described the losses to their units as devastating — both were known for being extremely friendly and talented, always willing to help their fellow service members.
Mullen's loved ones remember him for his sunny personality. 'He was always a very, very positive person,' said Ryan Williams, who met Mullen while they both served at Fort Stewart. 'I couldn't figure out how he did it.'
Williams, who left the Army last July, had a bit of a sibling rivalry with Mullen. Within Williams' first 10 minutes in the platoon, colleagues started describing him and Mullen as 'twins.' But they did have some points of contention: Williams is from Texas, and the soldier from Maryland 'wanted to make sure that I knew that Texas wasn't all that as much as I thought it was.'
But the two did end up becoming 'super close. we were brothers at the end of the day,' said Williams.
Mullen enjoyed his role as a driver in the Army and often helped Williams learn the ropes of that job.
'He never thought twice about helping myself or somebody else,' said Williams, who described Mullen as a selfless friend who 'did it without thought of what's in it for him. '
And he was never a kid who shied away from affection, either, his mother said — even in his teenage years 'when he loved you, he loved you with his whole being.' That's carried on to his children, too.
Like his early desire to serve in the Army, Mullen had early ambitions to become a father; he was coming up with baby names as an 8-year-old, his mother said.
Since then, he's been able to name three children of his own: Axel, 3; Josephine, 2; and Elsie, who is due in June. But he'd been coming up with more names all along — his mother found the lists while going through his belongings.
Some of those names were inspired by mythological figures whom Mullen loved to research.
'He could talk your ear off about it all day long,' his mother said. 'Some people were always on their phone … Jacob was probably reading something [about history or mythology] or looking at cars.'
Allergies in the household always dashed Jacob's hopes for a dog, but his mother is now a happy dog owner — and she's convinced that her son posthumously helped them connect.
In the wake of his death, she and her sister saw the pup in an adoption ad that referred to the dog as a 'gentle giant.' Curious, she checked the website and was entranced by the dog's sad eyes.
'I just remember thinking, 'he's so sad, and I'm so sad, so maybe we could just be sad together,'' she said.
The dog's name? Hermes, the Greek god believed to connect the living and the dead.
'I didn't realize that I needed him,' said Hermes' new owner. He has made things 'a little bit easier,' giving her a friend she can focus on — 'and he makes me get out of bed.'
'He made me keep moving at a time when it was really hard to keep moving,' she said.
Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at [email protected], on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.
©2025 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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