Posted at 12:43 p.m., Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Fallen Schofield soldier identified as Texas resident
By William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writer
Sgt. Velton Locklear III, a married father of two, was on his second tour of Iraq, relatives said.
"He wanted to be an infantry soldier. He was interested in being up front where all the action is," his father, retired Sgt. Maj. Velton Locklear Jr., told the El Paso Times.
Locklear was with the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds," according to family.
Locklear and another Schofield Barracks soldier were killed and three injured when a roadside bomb exploded as they patrolled near the Iraqi city of Hawija on Saturday, the Pentagon and military officials said.
The soldiers belong to Task Force Lightning in northern Iraq. Another soldier with the task force was wounded by enemy fire near Mosul on Monday and died at a U.S. military hospital, according to a military release from Baghdad.
Schofield Barracks today was trying to determine if that soldier also was Hawai'i-based.
Hawija, about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk in the tip of the Sunni Triangle, has had a reputation as a particularly dangerous place since the 2004 deployment of 5,200 Schofield soldiers to Iraq.
Then, as now, it was the 27th Infantry Regiment "Wolfhounds" who had responsibility for 85,000-population Hawija and neighboring farming villages. In 2004 it was the 1st Battalion, which lost three soldiers in the Sunni enclave.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
