A hard week for a locally based Army Stryker brigade in Iraq got harder Wednesday when the Department of Defense announced a soldier had died on his third tour of Iraq.
Spc. Christopher W. Opat, 29, of Lime Springs, Iowa, died Tuesday in Baqouba, Diyala province, which is north of Baghdad. The Pentagon did not release details of the cavalryman’s death, other than to say it was not combat-related and was under investigation.
Opat is the third member of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division reported dead this week. The brigade is in the last few months of a deployment from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. A few early units started returning home last week.
According to unit records, Opat enlisted in the Army in 2003 and was trained in power equipment repair work. His previous two Iraq deployments came while he was stationed in Germany for 31/2 years.
He reported to Lewis-McChord in March 2008 and was assigned to the 3rd Brigade’s cavalry unit – the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment. The brigade was sent to Iraq last August.
Opat graduated from Crestwood High School in Cresco in 1999, according to The Des Moines Register, and he went on to obtain a construction degree from a community college in northeast Iowa before joining the Army.
He was not married and is survived by his mother, father and five siblings, according to the Register.
The other two 3rd Brigade soldiers reported dead this week were both killed Friday when a suicide bomber attacked their patrol. Sgt. Israel P. O’Bryan, 24, and Spc. William C. Yauch, 23, died in the town of Jalula, also in Diyala province.
A total of eight soldiers from 3rd Brigade have now lost their lives on this deployment, according to News Tribune records.
