BOISE, Idaho — A 22-year-old southwestern Idaho man was among five soldiers killed over the weekend in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan.
Specialist Thomas Paige Murach, of Meridian, died Saturday in Maiwand in southern Afghanistan, not far from the border with Pakistan.
Military officials said Murach was among five soldiers from Fort Bliss in Texas serving in the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division killed in the attack.
Murach died alongside Spc. Kevin Cardoza of Mercedes, Texas; 1st Lieutenant Brandon James Landrum of Lawton, Okla.; Staff Sgt. Francis Gene Phillips the IV, of Meridian, N.Y.; and Spc. Brandon Joseph Prescott, of Bend, Ore.
Murach’s family members issued a statement Monday after the announcement, saying they nicknamed him “Spanky” — a moniker originally meant as a joke but one that he eventually embraced.
He loved telling silly jokes, they said.
“We were always amused not so much by the joke itself, but by Tom’s reaction to telling the jokes,” his family said. “He would laugh his head off!”
They called him a wonderful, outgoing Christian man whose passions extended to video games, movies and physical fitness — and a circle of friends who will miss him. He was proud of the U.S. military’s work in Afghanistan.
“Tom loved being an Army infantryman and he never complained about the difficulty of his duties,” the family said in the statement. “He believed in the mission the Army performs, and he saw the value of that mission and the impact he was making in Afghanistan.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
