IRAQ WAR REPORTS

IRAQ WAR REPORTS


SOLDIER KILLED BY IED NEAR SAMARRA, 3 WOUNDED

August 31, 2005 HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND NEWS RELEASE
Number: 05-08-39C

TIKRIT, Iraq -- One Task Force Liberty Soldier was killed and three
were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on their
combat patrol southeast of Samarra at about 12:35 p.m. Aug. 31.
The wounded Soldiers were taken to a Coalition Forces medical treatment
facility.

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II MEF Soldier Killed In Action Near Iskandariyah

08/31/05 MNF Release A050831f

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq  A Soldier assigned to 155th Brigade Combat Team,
II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed in action Aug. 30th
when he was struck by an improvised explosive device. The incident
occurred during combat operations near Iskandariyah, Iraq.
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Task Force Freedom Soldier Killed In Attack Near Tal Afar

08/31/05 MNF Release A050831a

BAGHDAD, Iraq  A Task Force Freedom Soldier died when he was struck by
enemy fire while on dismounted patrol near Tal Afar, Aug. 27.
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Ada Soldier Killed By Roadside Bomb

August 31, 2005 By Ken Kolker and Nate Reens, The Grand Rapids Press

ADA TOWNSHIP -- An Ada Township soldier who was helping rebuild schools
in Iraq was killed by a roadside bomb, his wife said today.
U.S. Army Maj. Gregory Fester, 41, who has three children in the Forest
Hills Public Schools, died Tuesday while on foot patrol, said his wife,
Julie Fester.
On Tuesday evening, Julie Fester was heading to her daughter's
high-school open house. As she backed out of her driveway in the
Clements Mill neighborhood near Ada Drive, she saw an Army colonel and
a chaplain approaching.
"I thought I was seeing things," she said. "I turned around. I thought
if I just turned back around and stared into the garage, they'd be
gone. But I turned back around, and they were still there."
Fester served in the Army for 8 1/2 years, including a stint in
Operation Desert Storm, before leaving the service for a job in
pharmaceutical sales at Pfizer Inc. They were living in New York at the
time. He continued to serve in the Army Reserves.
Four years ago, he quit the Reserves after getting a promotion at
Pfizer that moved him to Grand Rapids.
On April 15 he received a letter ordering him back to active duty, his
wife said. He left on May 22 for Fort Bragg, N.C., then was sent to
Kuwait.
The roadside bomb was at least the second encountered by Fester,
according to an e-mail sent Aug. 22 -- eight days before he was killed.

He was headed north with a convoy to the Baghdad area, where his
brother, Eric, is stationed, when it was struck by an IED. "For those
of you who do not know what an IED is, it stands for Improvised
Explosive Device," he wrote. "This is the primary means of the
insurgents to take out vehicles in convoys."
The explosion destroyed the convoy's second vehicle, two in front of
his, but nobody was injured, he wrote. He had hoped to visit his
brother, but the convoy was forced to turn around.
IEDs, he wrote, "just mess up your day."
Julie Fester said her husband was expected to serve through November
2006. They would have celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary on
Monday.
Besides his wife, Fester is survived by three children: Jenni, 16, a
junior at Forest Hills Central High School; Megan, 13, an eighth-grader
at Central Middle School; and Peyton, 6, a first-grader at Ada
Elementary.
-------------------------------------------

Corcoran Grad Dies

August 31, 2005 By Sarah Moses, Contributing writer, The Post-Standard

A Corcoran High School graduate, 23-year-old 2nd Lt. Charles "Charlie"
Rubado, was killed by a sniper Monday night in Iraq, his father said.
"He's safe now, but there's a hole in my heart," said Rubado's father,
also named Charles Rubado.
His father said that Rubado was leading his platoon on patrol Monday
night when he was hit by a sniper. Rubado was the only one injured by
the attack, his father said.
Rubado graduated from Corcoran in 2000 and moved to Florida with his
parents to attend college. He graduated from the Reserve Officers'
Training Corps in southern Florida in 2004 and trained at Fort Carson
in Colorado before heading to Iraq in March of this year.
Rubado, who still has family in the Syracuse area, was described by
relatives as an extraordinary person.
"He did everything right, he was truly perfect," said Matt Rubado, of
Syracuse, Charlie's cousin. "He had a path. He graduated from college
and went in the military. He was married. He was just plain happy."
As a teenager, Rubado played soccer for Corcoran High School and loved
being in the water, his cousin said.
"He was a happy kid," said Jay Rubadeau, of Syracuse, Charlie's uncle.
"He couldn't have had a more perfect life, that is, up until age 23."
Rubado's parents, Charles Rubado and Nitaya Rubado, live in Clearwater,
Fla. They received the news of their son's death from soldiers at their
local military base.
"My brother called me at about 9:30 last night and said Charlie was
killed," said Rubado's aunt, Jean Rizzi. "He could barely speak. He
just told me to make some calls to the family."
Rubado's father was a master sergeant in the military and completed two
tours of duty in Vietnam before retiring and moving to Syracuse. Here,
he worked for Niagara Mohawk.
Rubado's family lived in Syracuse's Valley area on Barnes Avenue for
more than 10 years. They moved to Florida after Rubado completed high
school. Rubado's Syracuse relatives only saw him on holidays or summer
vacations, but said they all stayed very close.
"He was like my little brother," said Matt Rubado. "He's a hero. I
don't know if you have to die to be a hero, but he is a hero."
In 2003, Rubado married his college sweetheart, Mary-Anne. She was
living at Fort Carson fulfilling her duties as the second lieutenant's
wife when she learned her husband was killed in Iraq, Rubado's father
said.
"It's all still very new right now," his father said. "The phone has
been ringing all day. He was the best."
----------------------------------------
Local Reservist One Of Five Wounded By IED

8/30/2005 Gannett



Last Friday, August 26th, Lance Corporal Beyers was reportedly on foot
patrol when he stepped on an improvised explosive device, or I.E.D.,
and was badly wounded.
"The marine has lost his right arm and part of his right leg,"
confirmed Master Sergeant Thomas R. Whelan with India Company in
Buffalo, Beyers' unit. "The medical staff is hopeful. He is in
critical, but stable condition. The medical staff indicated to me he is
in a drug-induced coma."
Lance Corporal Beyers is under the constant care of doctors at a
military hospital in Germany. The plans are to transport him to
Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland this Friday, according to his
mother, Tricia Beyers.
"I just want to touch him," Beyers said in her Perrysburg home.
She said she last spoke with her son about six weeks ago, before his
unit headed into a remote part of Iraq that Mark said would be
dangerous.
Tricia said five others were injured in the explosion, but Mark was the
most seriously hurt.

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US Forces Suffered More Combat Deaths In August Than Any Month This
Year

August 31, 2005 AP


U.S. forces in Iraq suffered at least 74 combat deaths in August --
more than in any month since last November and the third-highest total
for any month of the war, according to Pentagon figures.
The total number of U.S. military deaths in August, including those
deemed non-hostile, was at least 83, according to figures available
Wednesday. That was the highest since 107 in January, when there was an
extraordinary 53 accidental deaths for the month, including 30 Marines
and a sailor who died in a Jan. 26 helicopter crash.
The 74 troops killed in action in August was the third-highest monthly
total of the war, behind 126 in April 2004 and 125 last November, when
the Marines led a bloody assault on the former insurgent stronghold of
Fallujah.

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