Showing 432 posts tagged KIA
Italian Army Major Giuseppe La Rosa. 8 JUN 2013.
Died in Farah province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained from a grenade in a hostile fire incident. La Rosa’s unit assignment has not yet been reported.
I Drive Your Truck
- Lee Brice
- Hard 2 Love
Staff Sergeant Jared C. Monti. 21 JUN 2006.
Died when his unit encountered enemy forces using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades during combat operations in Gowardesh, Afghanistan. Monti was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 71st Calvary, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, New York.
Full Medal of Honor citation:
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Sergeant First Class [then Staff Sergeant] Jared C. Monti, United States Army, for gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a team leader with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3d Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3d Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, in connection with combat operations against an enemy in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, on 21 June 2006.
While Sergeant First Class Monti was leading a mission aimed at gathering intelligence and directing fire against the enemy, his 16-man patrol was attacked by as many as 50 enemy fighters. On the verge of being overrun, Sergeant First Class Monti quickly directed his men to set up a defensive position behind a rock formation. He then called for indirect fire support, accurately targeting the rounds upon the enemy who had closed to within 50 meters of his position.
While still directing fire, Sergeant First Class Monti personally engaged the enemy with his rifle and grenade, successfully disrupting an attempt to flank his patrol. Sergeant First Class Monti then realized that one of his soldiers was lying wounded in the open ground between the advancing enemy and the patrol’s position. With complete disregard for his own safety, Sergeant First Class Monti twice attempted to move from behind the cover of the rocks into the face of relentless enemy fire to rescue his fallen comrade.
Determined not to leave his soldier, Sergeant First Class Monti made a third attempt to cross open terrain through intense enemy fire. On this final attempt, he was mortally wounded, sacrificing his own life in an effort to save his fellow soldier. Sergeant First Class Monti’s selfless acts of heroism inspired his patrol to fight off the larger enemy force.
Sergeant First Class Monti’s immeasurable courage and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3d Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3d Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, and the United States Army.
[Citation source. H/T to moldenhaur for the story via NPR.]
Soldier Dies in Afghanistan, Not Without Leaving Lasting Impact
The nickname Carmen Reigoux had for her 30-year-old brother Job still makes her laugh. She called him “Dumbo,” because he had big ears. But, she says, he was also very handsome.
“My brother is…he was a big kid stuck in an adult body. He was a big kid and I love that about him. He was always goofy and he always had a smile on his face,” Carmen Reigoux said.
He loved kids too, and when Carmen had her own son in 2001 he was always there to lend a hand.
“I remember one day he came home from work and I had my son sleeping on me and I remember he woke me up, he gave me a kiss on my forehead and he gave me a rose and he said, ‘Thank you for giving me my nephew,’” she said. “He was very sweet, he was such a gentleman. You would have loved him. Everybody would have loved him.”
It surprised the family when that gentle, “big kid” enlisted in the army in 2002. In the years since, he served two tours in Iraq. Got married and had two children of his own. Reigoux was stationed in Fort Stewart, Georgia, before his deployment to Afghanistan last November and Carmen says they had to rely mostly on the phone and the internet to stay in touch.
“He would call me just to check up on me. I used to love waking up because he would text me at like 4 or 5 in the morning just to see his message,” Carmen Reigoux said.
Jarell Gatlin, met Reigoux in 2011 when they were stationed in Georgia. ”He was was my best friend and he was a great leader and soldier,” Gatlin said.
In Georgia, Reigoux earned another nickname: Rex.
“They called him Ragu like the spaghetti sauce. We used to try and mess it up as bad as we could. We liked him and it was funny. We got laughter out of who could come up with the funniest name,” Gatlin said.While Carmen remembers her brother’s gentle side, Gatlin and those he served with also recall his courage, and his grace under fire. She says she’s heard from many soldiers on Facebook since his death.
“One, his name is Hanson. He was like, ‘Carmen, your brother was the bravest, the strongest out there on the field. He wishes he could have been there, he wishes he could have seen my brother off as well,” she said.
Another is named Michael Collins.
“He was like ‘I idolized your brother, I looked up to him. He was like my best friend. It was an honor to have known him, he was a great man,’” Carmen Reigoux said.
Collins is still serving in Afghanistan. We couldn’t arrange to talk to him by phone, but he wrote to me about Reigoux – or Rex — in an email. “He always could make anybody laugh even in the worst situations. He carried a rubber monkey around and took pics of it all the time in the weirdest places. He wanted to send them to his daughter,” Collins writes.
On June 1, Reigoux was killed when his unit came under rocket propelled grenade attack in Ghazni Province in Eastern Afghanistan. When his sister Carmen received the news, she says she couldn’t believe it. Her brother was going to visit Austin while he was on leave later this month. He was looking forward to taking his little girl to Sea World.
“I was in denial. I would go to my Facebook waiting and waiting. But I knew it was true because he still hasn’t written me back,” she said.
This afternoon, funeral services for Job Reigoux will take place at Christian Life Church in Austin. His friend Jarell Gatlin, who escorted Reigoux’s coffin from Afghanistan to Austin, says even though Reigoux is gone, the way he lived his life will continue to serve as an example for those who knew him.
“He just always told me that life’s too short to try to think of ways that things can go wrong or how something’s not the way that you want it to be,” Gatlin said.
Reigoux is survived by his wife, Erica, his son Seth, and his daughter Madison. He also leaves behind his parents Maria Guevara and Rubén Reigoux, his two sisters Carmen Reigoux and Angie Guevara and his younger brother, Saúl Reigoux.
Georgia Army Private Mikheil Narindoshvili. 6 JUN 2013.
Died in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained during an incident involving a suicide bomber with a vehicle-born improved explosive device. Narindoshvili was assigned to the 42nd Light Infantry Battalion of the IV Infantry Brigade.
Georgia Army Corporal Teimuraz Ortavidze. 6 JUN 2013.
Died in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained during an incident involving a suicide bomber with a vehicle-born improved explosive device. Ortavidze was assigned to the 42nd Light Infantry Battalion of the IV Infantry Brigade.
Georgia Army Corporal Giorgi Adamov. 6 JUN 2013.
Died in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained during an incident involving a suicide bomber with a vehicle-born improved explosive device. Adamov was assigned to the 42nd Light Infantry Battalion of the IV Infantry Brigade.
Georgia Army Private First Class Zurab Gurgenashvili. 6 JUN 2013.
Died in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained during an incident involving a suicide bomber with a vehicle-born improved explosive device. Gurgenashvili was assigned to the 42nd Light Infantry Battalion of the IV Infantry Brigade.
Georgia Army [rank unknown] Boris Tsugoshvili. 6 JUN 2013.
Died in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained during an incident involving a suicide bomber with a vehicle-born improved explosive device. Tsugoshvili was assigned to the 42nd Light Infantry Battalion of the IV Infantry Brigade.
Georgia Army Private First Class Zviad Sulkhanishvili. 6 JUN 2013.
Died in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained during an incident involving a suicide bomber with a vehicle-born improved explosive device. Sulkhanishvili was assigned to the 42nd Light Infantry Battalion of the IV Infantry Brigade.
Georgia Army Private First Class Giorgi Ghuchashvili. 6 JUN 2013.
Died in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained during an incident involving a suicide bomber with a vehicle-born improved explosive device. Ghuchashvili was assigned to the 42nd Light Infantry Battalion of the IV Infantry Brigade.
