Number 73

Kentucky's 73rd casualty of the Iraq/Afghanistan catastrophe is 21-year-old Private First Class Sergio S. Abad.

The former Job Corps student in this rural western county on the Ohio River was one of nine soldiers who died of wounds suffered when their outpost was attacked by small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades from enemy forces in Wanat, Afghanistan, on July 13.

They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503d Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy.

Abad is the third Kentucky Iraq/Afghanistan casualty in a month, the fourth in 2008, the 11th to die in Afghanistan.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.