The Pentagon identified the soldiers as:

 • Spc. Luke S. Runyan, of Spring Grove, Pa.

 • Spc. Chad D. Groepper, of Kingsley, Iowa.

An earlier release by U.S. military officials in Baghdad said a third soldier was wounded in the attack, but Fort Lewis officials released no additional information about the soldier’s condition Tuesday.

The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The brigade has been in Iraq the past 11 months, mainly in Baghdad, in the areas just north of the capital, and for the past several months in Diyala, the province just northeast of Baghdad.

The brigade has lost 36 soldiers, 16 of them from Groepper’s and Runyan’s battalion, although the announcements have come mercifully less often this winter. The last soldier from the brigade was killed Jan. 5; before that three men were killed Nov. 18.

Fort Lewis said the two soldiers were high school graduates who arrived on post in 2005 after basic and advanced infantry training at Fort Benning, Ga.

Family members told their hometown papers that military officials told them the two were shot after they were drawn into an ambush.

Officials did not provide a more specific location of the attack.

Family and friends described both men as fearless soldiers softened a bit by the arrival of their children.

Runyan and his wife, Courtney, had a daughter, Brynn, who is almost 1, while Groepper was able to be home from Iraq after his wife, Stephanie, gave birth to daughter Clarissa, now 4 months old.

Runyan’s father, Marc, told the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News he last saw his son at Christmas when the family flew out to the Fort Lewis area while he was home on leave. While delighted to be home with his wife and daughter, the soldier was eager to get back to his unit, the elder Runyan said.

“He wanted to be there with his other ‘family,’ his buddies,” Marc Runyan said.

He joined out of high school and tried to make it in the Rangers but was held back by hairline fractures in his legs, family members told the York Daily Record.

Runyan, like Groepper, also re-enlisted while in Iraq.

Runyan’s father said he had a matter-of-fact attitude about the risks of his work.

“He had no fear of combat, and I guess that was part of his training,” Marc Runyan told the York Dispatch. “He once told me you go out on a mission and if you get hit, you get hit, if you don’t, you don’t. It’s as simple as that.

“He did feel very strongly that they were doing an excellent job freeing the Iraqi people from al-Qaida.”

Groepper’s hometown papers reported news of his death ahead of the Pentagon’s announcement Tuesday. The News Tribune carried a story about him in Tuesday’s editions.

Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921

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