FORT LEWIS – Three Stryker brigade soldiers have died in a roadside bombing in Iraq, bringing the total to 14 in May at Fort Lewis and making it the worst month of the war for troops from the Army post.
Staff Sgt. David Kuehl, 27, of Wahpeton, N.D.; Staff Sgt. Kristopher Higdon, 25, of Odessa, Texas; and Pfc. Robert Worthington, 19, of Jackson, Ga., all from the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, died Tuesday after improvised explosive devices were detonated near their unit in Taji, about 10 miles north of Baghdad.
Higdon and Worthington died in one bombing and Kuehl in another, military officials said.
Their deaths were confirmed on the same day as memorial services were held at the post for Cpl. Jonathan Hamm, 20, of Baltimore, and Cpl. Aaron Gautier, 19, of Hampton, Va., members of the same company and also of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
Hamm was hit in a mortar attack on his forward operating base and Gautier’s patrol was raked by small-arms fire and roadside bombs, both May 17 in Baghdad, Pentagon officials said.
The latest deaths boosted the total to six since the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, arrived in Iraq this month. Fort Lewis has about 10,000 troops in Iraq, including the 4th Brigade and a second Stryker brigade, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
Kuehl, an infantry squad leader who joined the Army in 1999, was in his third assignment overseas. He and his wife, Amy, named their second daughter, 9-month-old Messa, after a little girl he befriended on his first tour in Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, in 2004-05, Amy Kuehl said at a news conference Thursday in Wahpeton.
“He just liked her name. She was a cute little girl. I never did get a picture of her or anything, but ever since that day we kept that name,” Amy Kuehl said. “We never told anybody.
“He was a great father.”
He also leaves a 7-year-old daughter, Kiley.
“He was supposed to call the day he was killed. I couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t called,” Amy Kuehl said, crying.
Higdon also joined the Army in 1999; was on his second tour in Iraq; and is survived by his wife, MaKayne, a daughter and a son.
He “strongly believed in what he did and why we are fighting,” his father, Danny Higdon, told the Odessa American newspaper. “I’m so cried out right now my eyes are burning.”
Worthington joined the Army in June and arrived at Fort Lewis in January after basic training and airborne school.
Robert Worthington told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he knew his son was nervous about going to war.
“You know something might happen, but you never think it will,” the elder Worthington said.
At the memorial service, Pfc. Jose Dominguez recalled taking Hamm home with him to El Paso, Texas.
“My mom, all my relatives, felt like he was part of the family,” Dominguez said. “He grew on us and he taught me a lot about life, to let go of hate and anger and be yourself.”
Sgt. Mark Miller said Gautier was always willing to help a buddy who might have forgotten a piece of gear in the field and was quick to volunteer for a detail.
“I last spoke to him when he was deploying. He was getting on the bus, and I asked him if he was scared,” Miller said. “His reply was, ‘No, I have a band of brothers with me. I’ll be fine.’”
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