A Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker soldier on his third deployment was killed Monday in Afghanistan, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.
Staff Sgt. Wesley Williams, 25, of New Carlisle, Ohio, died when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device during a mission in Kandahar province.
He served with Lewis-McChord’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which deployed last month to replace another local Stryker unit in southern Afghanistan.
Williams joined the Army in 2005 after graduating from high school. He met his wife at an ROTC program at Tecumseh High School in his hometown, WHIO TV reported.
The news station reported that his family was seeking privacy after learning of Williams’ death.
Williams spent his first couple of years in the Army training to become an infantryman and then an airborne soldier. He reported to the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany in 2006 and deployed with the unit to Iraq in 2007 as a radio telephone operator.
The Army assigned him to Lewis-McChord’s 4th Brigade in February 2009, and he deployed to Iraq later that year as a rifleman. Williams deployed again with the 4th Brigade last month, this time to Afghanistan as an infantry squad leader.
His death is the second fatal casualty for the 4th Brigade on this deployment, and the 34th in Afghanistan for Lewis-McChord this year.
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