For more than seven weeks, Fort Lewis troops have been carefully finding and destroying the deep-buried bombs and booby traps that insurgents set in their path in Baqouba.
In an offensive they thought would be as difficult as any they’ve undertaken in 14 months in Iraq, the Strykers hadn’t lost a single man as they drove al-Qaida in Iraq from its Diyala province stronghold.
But the luck of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division ran out this week. Four soldiers and an interpreter were killed and 12 others wounded when the house they were searching exploded, military officials said.
It was the brigade’s third catastrophic loss in a week, following bombings July 31 and Aug. 2 in Baghdad that killed six soldiers.
The Department of Defense on Thursday identified the four killed Monday as:
• Staff Sgt. Jacob M. Thompson, 26, of North Mankato, Minn.
• Sgt. Nicholas A. Gummersall, 23, of Chubbuck, Idaho.
• Cpl. Juan M. Alcantara, 22, of New York.
• Spc. Kareem R. Khan, 20, of Manahawkin, N.J.
All four were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, which patrolled for months in Baghdad before moving 35 miles northeast in mid-June to join the brigade-led Operation Arrowhead Ripper.
Reporters embedded with the brigade in the early days of the operation, which began June 19, described how soldiers found house after house rigged with explosives, ammunition and propane tanks.
Brigade officers said they called in airstrikes and used artillery and rockets to destroy two dozen booby-trapped houses and more than 80 buried bombs in the first week or so of the offensive.
An officer on the brigade staff told The News Tribune at the time that commanders were mindful that they were in the final couple months of a deployment originally scheduled to end in June.
Military officials in Baghdad said the 12 soldiers wounded in Monday’s blast all suffered minor injuries and were returned to duty the same day.
Two of those killed were veterans of previous deployments.
Thompson, a squad leader, went to Iraq on 3rd Brigade’s first trip in 2003-04 and was previously awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he suffered in a bombing.
His father, Charlie, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that Jacob and his two older brothers grew up hunting and fishing and loved football and baseball. Thompson enlisted after high school in 1999, and arrived at Fort Lewis in March 2000 to join the Army’s first Stryker brigade.
Thompson re-enlisted after the first Iraq trip and was thinking about a third even as he prepared to return home from his second tour, Charlie Thompson told the paper. He had phoned home before the Baqouba operation and warned his folks that it was going to be tough.
But he had a lot of confidence in his troops and believed in the mission, his father said.
Gummersall enlisted in October 2002 and served two years in the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Lewis. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan three times before moving to the 1-23 Infantry in June 2006, family members and Army officials said.
His father, Clay Gummersall, told the Idaho State Journal that his son was a standout football running back and free safety in high school who had planned to try out for the team at Boise State University before the brigade’s tour in Iraq was extended three months.
His high school coach, Bruce Givens, told the State Journal that Gummersall was fast, thrived in pressure situations and was a natural leader on his football and baseball teams.
“He’s one of the best kids that I ever coached,” Givens told the paper. “It sounds cliche, but he’s a kid you wish you had 50 of on any team.”
His father said he had a girlfriend in North Carolina whom he planned to marry.
Khan was likewise a Purple Heart recipient, according to soldiers’ records released by Fort Lewis.
He enlisted in July 2005 and arrived at Fort Lewis in March 2006, three months ahead of deployment to Iraq.
Alcantara enlisted in September 2004 and arrived at Fort Lewis the following January. He was posthumously promoted to corporal.
The brigade has lost 47 soldiers in its second Iraq deployment.
Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921
mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com
blogs.thenewstribune.com/military
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