William Frederick Simpson, III (Trey), was born in Kinston, NC on March 17th, 1982 to William F. Simpson, Jr. and Joan R. Simpson.
After graduating from South Lenoir High School in 2000 he began work as a land-surveying technician and attended two semesters at Lenoir Community College. On September 11th, 2001 he decided to join the United States Army as an infantryman. In May of 2002 he reported to Fort Benning, GA to attend the United States Army school of Infantry as well as the Army Airborne School.
Upon completion of Infantry and Airborne school he was assigned to A Co. 1st battalion, 508th Infantry in Vicenza, Italy, but this was not to be his final stop. He was reassigned several months later to A Co. 1st battalion, 18th Infantry in Schweinfurt, Germany
In February of 2004 Trey was deployed to Tikrit, Iraq with his unit for his first time in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. While deployed Trey participated in many combat operations, two of which included the takeover of the city of Samarra and providing fixed site security for Iraq’s first free elections. He served as a rifleman, Bradley driver/gunner, and humvee driver/gunner in combat operations until March of 2005 when his unit was redeployed back to home station in Germany. This deployment would not be his last taste of combat.
Once again in September 2006 Trey was again deployed with A Co. 1-18 Infantry. After a short stay in Kuwait his unit was assigned a sector in Baghdad, Iraq. While in Baghdad some of his operations included combat patrols, raids, observation posts, small kill team operations, and fixed site security. During this deployment Trey held many different duty positions including Bradley gunner/commander, designated marksman, fire team leader, and later, squad leader. His unit redeployed back to Germany in November of 2007 and Trey was finally honorably discharged from the Army on February 18th, 2008 at the rank of Sergeant.
His awards, badges and decorations include the following:
The Combat Infantryman Badge, The Army Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, The Army Achievement Medal with oak leaf cluster, The Good Conduct Medal, The National Defense Service Medal, The Iraq Campaign Medal, The War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, The War on Terrorism Medal, The Army Service Ribbon, The Army Overseas Service Ribbon with numerical “3”, Expert Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge and the German Army marksmanship badge (gold),
Trey now resides in Greenville, NC where he is going to school for criminal justice and plans to pursue a career in law enforcement. He now very much enjoys spending time with his parents and friends in good ol’ North Carolina where the fish are biting, the hunting is great and no one shoots at him.
Trey’s grandfather William F. Simpson, Sr. served in WW2 with the US Navy as a naval aviator and his father William F. Simpson, Jr. served with the US Marine Corps in the Vietnam War
