SEOUL — Two more 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers died in Iraq last week, bringing the number of deaths among soldiers deployed from South Korea to 31.
Sgt. Arthur C. Williams IV, 31, of Edgewater, Fla., died Wednesday in Ramadi during a small-arms firefight while his unit was on foot patrol. Williams was assigned to the 44th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Howze, South Korea.
Williams’ death is the eighth among former Camp Howze soldiers since the Thanksgiving holiday.
On Tuesday, Sgt. 1st Class Todd C. Gibbs, 37, of Angelina, Texas, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Khalidiyah while on foot patrol, according to the Pentagon. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Greaves, South Korea.
Gibbs’ death was the second this week for soldiers from Camp Greaves. Staff Sgt. Kyle A. Eggers, 27, of Euless, Texas, died last Sunday from an IED.
“Todd had been real distraught about that,” Gibbs’ brother, 33-year-old Bret Gibbs, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I think he was real worried about that gentleman’s family.”
Khalidiyah is between Fallujah and Ramadi, an area that U.S.-led forces have been targeting in recent weeks with the hopes of controlling the violent insurgency there. American officials are hoping to stem the violence before the national elections, scheduled for late January.
Todd Gibbs grew up in Lufkin, Texas, graduating from high school in 1986. He went on to earn a criminal justice degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, according to the AP.
“After college he had a change of heart in the direction he wanted to take,” Bret Gibbs said. “He decided to enlist in the Army.”
Todd Gibbs’ wife, Melissa Gibbs, 1-year-old son and 10- year-old daughter live in Killeen, where he had been stationed at Fort Hood prior to being sent for a year to South Korea, the AP reported.
As of Friday morning, 1,278 servicemembers have died since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to the Pentagon.
