Hometown sadly recalls
slain Schofield soldier
CHAPEL HILL, Tenn. >> Staff Sgt. Todd Nunes is being remembered as a skilled artist who joined the Army after graduating from high school because he felt it was his duty to serve.
Nunes, 29, was killed Sunday in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk when his convoy encountered an improvised bomb and small-arms fire, the U.S. Department of Defense said.
He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) at Schofield Barracks.
Nunes and his wife, Christie, have an 18-month old son and a 7-year-old daughter.
Shelah Crick, a family friend, said Nunes was a member of the high school wrestling team, a good student and a talented artist.
"He could draw anything he saw," she said. "I had always told him one of these days he was going to work for Hallmark because he was such a good artist."
Crick said her son, Scott, and Nunes were childhood friends growing up in Chapel Hill, about 35 miles south of Nashville.
"They were best friends since the fifth grade," she said. "Both were at each other's weddings. I felt like Todd was one of the family. He was a wonderful young man."
Crick said Todd's younger brother, Brian, is a member of the Army and stationed in Georgia.
"Brian was expecting to return to Iraq when he got word that his brother had been killed there," she said.
Chapel Hill police Chief Jackie King called Nunes a "super-nice kid."
King, a member of the National Guard for 35 years, served in Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91.
"I know what they are going through," he said. "People in town are hurt."
Funeral arrangements are pending.