The 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team suffered its first fatality since deploying to Afghanistan when a soldier was killed by small-arms fire Wednesday.

Sgt. Lucas Beachnaw, 23, of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, based in Vicenza, Italy, was on a patrol in Darya Ya in eastern Afghanistan when he was killed, according to a news release Friday from the Department of Defense. The DOD said the patrol was attacked by enemy forces.

Beachnaw, a native of Lowell, Mich., joined the Army in 2006 and was on his second deployment to Afghanistan, according to a report by the Grand Rapids Press that attributed the information to the soldier’s family in Michigan.

Migrated