Military officials have identified a Fort Wainwright soldier killed this week by a suicide bomber in Iraq as Spc. Kenneth Hess.
Hess, 24, was killed Tuesday afternoon while doing a foot patrol with other Stryker brigade soldiers in Rawah.
Two others troops were wounded when the bomb went off, officials said, but their names have not been released. One of the soldiers was classified as "very seriously injured" and the other is now considered "not seriously injured," according to U.S. Army Alaska spokesman Maj. Kirk Gohlke. Both soldiers were flown to Germany for medical attention.
Hess, from Asheville, N.C., joined the Army in May 2001 and spent the last two years stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. At the time of his death, he was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment.
Hess is the 26th soldier with a strong connection to Alaska to die in Iraq since the conflict began in 2003 and the fourth to be killed in combat this month.
More than half of those deaths were caused by the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in -- roadside bombs. Hess is the first soldier from Alaska to be killed by a suicide bomber.
His death marks the 11th for the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team since the 3,800-person unit left for Iraq last fall for a yearlong tour.
Military officials say they are planning a service for Hess at Fort Wainwright, but details have not yet been announced. Another service scheduled Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the post is for Spc. Shawn Creighton, who was killed a few days before Hess in the same Northern Iraq town by a roadside bomb.
Contact reporter Tataboline Brant at tbrant@adn.com or (907) 257-4321.
