Updated at 2:13 p.m., Saturday, December 9, 2006
Military identifies five Schofield soldiers killed Wednesday
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
The soldiers died when a massive bomb tore apart their Humvee in the restive Sunni Arab city of Hawija, about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk. At least 10 Schofield soldiers and a State Department contractor working with Hawai'i soldiers have been killed in and around Hawija on this deployment. More than 7,000 Schofield soldiers left for a year in northern Iraq in July and August. A total of 14 have been killed.
Identified today were: Spc. Yari Mokri, 26, of Pflugerville, Texas; and Pfc. Travis C. Krege, 24, of Cheektowaga, N.Y.
The military also confirmed the identities, released previously by family, of Sgt. Joshua B. Madden, 21, of Minden, La.; Cpl. Jason I. Huffman, 23, of Conover, N.C.; and Sgt. Jesse J.J. Castro, 22, who has family including a wife and two-week-old son in Guam, but who listed Chalan Pago, American Samoa, as his hometown with the military.
Castro, Huffman, Madden and Krege were all assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Wolfhounds. Mokri was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion.
