Schofield soldier is killed
The death is the first for the force’s Stryker Brigade Combat Team
The 25th Infantry Division 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which deployed to Iraq in December, suffered its first casualty Saturday.
The Pentagon reported yesterday that Spc. Jon M. Schoolcraft III, 26, of Wapakoneta, Ohio, died Saturday in Taji of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck a homemade bomb.
His mother, Cynthia Ann Schoolcraft, told the Associated Press that her son, who known by the nickname Mike, graduated from high school in northwestern Ohio in 2001.
"It's a tragedy. He loved his family very much," she said. "He liked to kid around, and he was a good person and a good soldier."
She added that "from what I understand, his actions allowed others to survive and return home to their families."
Schoolcraft was among the nearly 4,000 soldiers who left Wahiawa in December and belonged to a Schofield Barracks unit that was equipped with 328 eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles.
He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment.
The 2nd Stryker Brigade took over the responsibility for Taji last week from the 1st Cavalry Division for 15 months.
This is the second Iraqi combat tour for the 25th Division's 2nd Brigade. Thirteen soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team were killed during its first Iraqi deployment in 2004. When the 2nd Brigade returned to Hawaii in 2005, it began the conversion to become the Army's fifth Stryker brigade.
The Pentagon is now reviewing an environmental study that will determine where the Strykers will be stationed -- Schofield Barracks, Alaska or Colorado -- when they complete their Iraqi deployment next year.