Posted at 9:07 a.m., Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Palau mourns death of first soldier killed in Iraq
Advertiser Staff
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The mid-Pacific state of Palau on Wednesday acknowledged the "ultimate sacrifice" of the first native-born Palauan to die while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq, a government spokesman said Wednesday.The U.S. Department of Defense announced earlier that Cpl. Meresebang Ngiraked, 21, of Koror, Palau, was one of three soldiers who died June 10 in Karbala, Iraq, of wounds received from a bomb blast.
He was on his first posting to Iraq, assigned to the 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, Fort Lewis, Wash., Palau government spokesman Earnest Ongidobel said by telephone from the island territory's capital, Melekeok.
"He is the first Palauan fatality" in Iraq, Ongidobel said, adding that President Tommy Esang Remengesau Jr. had told reporters earlier "this individual made the ultimate sacrifice ... for security and freedom."
"It is a sad day for Palauans," Ongidobel said.
The national Congress likely will pass a resolution of condolence and remembrance and many Palau citizens are expected to attend services to acknowledge the soldier's death, he said.
Ngiraked's was due to be flown back to Palau for a military funeral, although no date had yet been confirmed.
The Republic of Palau is an island nation of 19,000 in the mid-Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles east of the Philippines.
It has been an independent state since 1994 when Palau emerged from administration by the United States under United Nations trusteeship. It remains in a Compact of Free Association with the United States.
