The Department of Defense has identified five Schweinfurt, Germany-based soldiers killed in Baghdad on June 21 when a makeshift bomb detonated near their Bradley fighting vehicle.
Sgt. Alphonso J. Montenegro II, 22, of Far Rockaway, N.Y.; Sgt. Ryan M. Wood, 22, of Oklahoma City; Pfc. Daniel J. Agami, 25, of Coconut Creek, Fla.; Pfc. Anthony D. Hebert, 19, of Lake City, Minn.; and Pfc. Thomas R. Leemhuis, 23, of Binger, Okla., all died in the blast.
All were members of Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.
The battalion, known as the “Blue Spaders,” has lost 22 soldiers since it arrived in Iraq late last summer, according to DOD press releases.
Montenegro enlisted in the Army less than four years ago after he finished high school, according to Newsday, a Long Island, N.Y., newspaper.
“He looked out for everybody,” Jennifer, his sister, said. “He was like a dad for us.”
The Army extended Montenegro’s three-year contract, his brother, Christian, told Newsday.
“He was really upset because he was supposed to be back and they stop-lossed him,” he said. “He told me this time he wasn’t going to come back.”
Wood was described by his stepfather, Scott Vincent, “as one of the kindest, gentlest young men you could ever know,” the Oklahoman newspaper in Oklahoma City reported.
“During the first tour of duty he was extremely proud to be there,” Vincent told the Oklahoman. But “he did not have a good feeling about this tour.”
Wood had received an acceptance letter to the University of Central Oklahoma days before his death.
Agami, who was buried Tuesday, was remembered at a memorial service as “happy-go-lucky” and “profoundly patriotic,” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported.
After Sept. 11, 2001, “He said, ‘America is going to fix the problem,’ ” Rachel Kenner, a friend of Agami’s, told the newspaper.
Hebert, his high school’s top golfer for two years in a row, was a guy who “always handled himself real well, on the course and off the course,” Steve Randgaard, Hebert’s high school golf coach, told the Stillwater Courier newspaper in Stillwater, Minn.
Leemhuis’ MySpace page has numerous pictures and references to some of his fellow soldiers who died earlier in the deployment, as well as those he died with.
On a survey he posted on his page, he lists Hebert as his funniest friend. His featured photo showed Leemhuis standing with Pfc. Ryan J. Hill, a fellow member of Company C, who was killed Jan. 20 in Baghdad.
A memorial ceremony for the five soldiers will be held Tuesday, at 10 a.m., at the Ledward chapel, Ledward Barracks, in Schweinfurt.
There is a memorial ceremony for Staff Sgt. Michael A. Bechert, Company C, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, on Monday, at 3 p.m., at the same location.
Stars and Stripes reporter Mark St.Clair contributed to this report.
