Posted on: Saturday, June 25, 2005
MILITARY AFFAIRS
California guardsman serving with Hawai'i reservists killed
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — Arnold Duplantier II had just celebrated his 26th birthday and returned to Iraq when he was killed while guarding the hotel where members of the international media stay, the California National Guard said yesterday.
Duplantier family via Associated Press He is the 12th California guardsman killed in Iraq and the first from Sacramento.
"Every indication is he's just a good soldier. He volunteered to go" to Iraq, Hughan said.
Duplantier had been a full-time guardsman providing security at the Guard's Sacramento headquarters before he volunteered, Hughan said. A casualty report released yesterday said he was recently promoted to sergeant.
Duplantier was assigned to the Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, Auburn, Calif.
Duplantier's battalion is part of the 29th Separate Infantry Brigade. The brigade also includes about 2,100 Hawai'i Army National Guard soldiers.
He served six months of a yearlong deployment before returning to Sacramento recently for a two-week leave.
He returned to Iraq 10 days ago for his second six-month stint after a shopping trip to buy presents to hand to Iraqi children, his widow said. He also is survived by a 5-year-old daughter.
Tanya Duplantier, 25, last talked to her husband hours before he died. "He said he couldn't wait to get home and that he had to be strong," she told the Sacramento Bee.
Arnold Duplantier, 44, raised his son alone from the age of 12 and said his son found structure in the military.
"He already had this sense of what he's got to do in life," he said while holding a watch with "United We Stand" highlighted against an American flag, a gift from his son.
Duplantier was killed by small arms fire Wednesday afternoon while guarding the outside of the Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad, Guard spokesman Tech. Sgt. Andrew Hughan said. He was the only casualty.
California National Guard Sgt. Arnold Duplantier II, 26, had recently returned to Iraq to finish a yearlong deployment.
