More isle warriors killed in Iraq

A Schofield soldier and 2 Marines from Kaneohe have paid the ultimate price

Darrell Fiscus was counting the days until his 26-year- old son would come back to Delaware once his second tour in Iraq ended in February.

But the knock on his front door came two months too soon.

"Some coldhearted man came to my door at 9:30 at night," the 45-year-old recalled yesterday. "They just basically stood in front of me and said that my son was killed."

His son, Army Sgt. Keith E. Fiscus, a Townsend native who was based at Schofield Barracks since 2002, died Saturday in Baghdad of injuries he suffered when an explosive detonated near his vehicle during combat operations in Taji, the Army announced yesterday.

Fiscus, a 4 1/2-year veteran of the service, wanted to continue his military career, and hoped to move up the Army ranks when he returned from Iraq, his father said.

"He didn't want to be stuck as an infantry guy, you know," Darrell Fiscus said. "He was starting to make a move."

Fiscus said both of his son's grandparents spent many years with the military, one in the Army and the other in the Navy. Keith Fiscus had an 18-year-old brother, Jordan, and two sisters, Korrie, 16, and Dena, 28, his father said.

"When he was younger, he played with GI Joes," he said. "He just wanted to serve his country. That's what he enlisted for. He wanted to go back because he thought he could help somebody out."

Fiscus was an infantryman assigned to the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division headquartered at Schofield Barracks. He is the ninth Schofield soldier killed in Iraq since the 25th Infantry Division deployed there in August.

Also yesterday, the Pentagon identified Marine Cpl. Joshua C. Sticklen, 24, of Virginia Beach, Va., who was killed when the CH-46 helicopter he was in crashed in Al-Anbar province on Sunday.

Three other service members were also killed in that crash, including Maj. Joseph T. McCloud, 39, who was identified earlier, of Gross Pointe Park, Mich.

Sticklen and McCloud were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment based at Kaneohe. Families of both soldiers refused to speak to the media yesterday.

McCloud was an infantry officer who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1990, and arrived in Hawaii in April. Sticklen was an intelligence specialist who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2002, and came to Hawaii in July 2003.

They are the 16th and 17th members of the battalion to die in Iraq since the unit arrived there in September.