Dimitri was born on January 25, 1985. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the US Army in May 2002 with the MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) 19K - M1 Abrams tank crewmember. He trained for four months at Fort Knox, Kentucky, including basic training and tanker training.

His first assignment was an overseas base in Vilseck, Germany, where he was stationed from October 2002 to March 2005. There, Dimitri served as a loader on the Abrams tank, assisted the Company's First Sergeant, and maintained two HMMWVs for the Headquarters platoon. He was also selected as the Top Loader in the company in August 2003, and his skills helped his crew earn superior qualification, during training in preparation for deployment.

Dimitri successfully completed two rotations at the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany, and was deployed to Iraq in October 2003. During his 6-month tour, he was stationed at Kirkuk Airbase, where he served as the command driver, gunner on the battalion XO's HMMWV, member of the Tactical Operations Center primary staff, and a rotation as an RTO. In addition, he volunteered for several medical operations that delivered medical supplies and escorted physicians to provide vital health care to the population.

After his return to Germany, Dimitri was selected to attend and completed the Primary Leadership Development Course in Grafenwoehr, Germany, in order to become a Non-Commissioned Officer. During PLDC, he achieved superior scores in evaluations and an average score of 93% on all examinations. In addition, he exhibited an elevated degree of professionalism, sound military intelligence, and admirable interpersonal skills that inspired confidence and respect among his peers...

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The name M1Sokol was Dimitri's nickname in games that he played, such as Counter-Strike and EVE: Online. He chose the name because "Sokol" means "falcon" in Russian and M1 was the name of his tank. Everywhere online, he was known as M1Sokol.
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