SEATTLE – The Department of Defense on Wednesday released the names of six Stryker brigade soldiers killed in a bombing in Iraq, one of the deadliest assaults involving a Fort Lewis unit in more than two years.
The department identified the soldiers as Army Staff Sgt. Vincenzo Romeo, 23, Lodi, N.J.; Cpl. Matthew Alexander, 21, of Gretna, Neb.; Cpl. Michael Pursel, 19, formerly of Lacey, Wash., and more recently of Clinton, Utah; Cpl. Anthony Bradshaw, 21, of San Antonio, Texas; Sgt. Joel W. Lewis, 28, Sandia Park, N.M., and Sgt. Jason R. Harkins, 25, of Clarkesville, Ga.
All were members of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a Stryker brigade combat team based at the post south of Tacoma. Also killed in the attack Sunday in Iraq’s Diyala Province was Dmitry Chebotayev, 29, a freelance news photographer traveling with the soldiers while on assignment for the Russian edition of Newsweek magazine.
Relatives previously identified five of the six, in some cases providing differing hometowns.
The brigade has been in Iraq since June on its second tour, and is due to return home in October after having its tour extended by three months. The six deaths bring to 45 the number of casualties the brigade has suffered since its first deployment to Iraq.
It was the deadliest blow to a Fort Lewis unit in one attack since six soldiers with the 1st Stryker Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, were killed in a suicide bombing on Dec. 21, 2004, at a dining tent in Mosul.
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