Topeka ? It has been more than two years since Sgt. Jacob Butler left Kansas for duty in Iraq, leaving his post at Fort Riley and his family in Wellsville.

He wrote a letter to his parents just two hours before he died, saying “Remember me. We’ll all be together soon.”

On Monday, his parents, James and Cynthia Butler, traveled to the Statehouse grounds to remember their son and all 20 Kansans who have died in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Butler also is one of 52 Fort Riley soldiers killed in Iraq. Five soldiers and Marines with ties to Kansas have died in May.

“I guess it’s pretty much destiny,” James Butler said of his son’s death. “He knew that his time was short. I don’t know if it was a dream or a premonition, but he just knew.”

Jacob Butler died April 1, 2003, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle. He was the only member of his platoon to be killed.

State officials paid tribute Monday to the sacrifices of those who have died in the war. A wreath was placed at the Veterans Memorial at the Statehouse. Family members placed long-stemmed red roses at the monument’s base as the names of their loved ones were read, reverberating from the limestone and copper building.

Kaitlyn Butler, 5, holds the hand of her mother, Chrissy, at the governor's Memorial Day ceremony at the Statehouse in Topeka. Members of the Butler family wore T-shirts bearing the picture of Kaitlyn's uncle, Army Sgt. Jacob Butler, the first Kansan killed in Iraq. Butler died April 1, 2003.

“One constant that runs through our history is that young men and women fight and die in wars not of their choosing,” said Jack Fowler, chairman of the Kansas Commission on Veterans’ Affairs.

Col. Bart Howard, commander of the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, presented Gov. Kathleen Sebelius with a flag that flew over Forward Operating Base Junction City at Camp Ramadi, Iraq. The brigade was deployed in Iraq from September 2003 to September 2004 and is training for another rotation later this year.

James Butler proudly wore a T-shirt with a photo of his son in uniform. Jacob Butler was one of more than 60 men and women in the military from Wellsville, a town of 1,500. With many still deployed to Iraq, the memory of war and his son’s death are not lost in the community, but James Butler worries people will forget his son’s sacrifice.

“I want to be remembered as a father who lost a son who fought for freedom for us,” he said. “Jake and many more gave it all.”

One of them was Sgt. Derrick Lutters of Goodland, who died May 1. He was buried in Ransom, where his parents visited his grave this weekend on their way to Topeka.

“I have to look pretty high to him now,” Chuck Lutters said.

Derrick Lutters went to Iraq for the adventure, said Marion Lutters, his mother, wanting to be with his friends who were deployed. He also wanted to relieve soldiers with families who needed to stay closer to home, his father added.

There have been more than 1,600 U.S. service members killed in Iraq since the start of the war. Kansas officials paid tribute to all veterans who have died in the current fighting and in all the nation’s wars.