Number 76

The 76th Kentuckian to die in Smirky's Iraq/Afghanistan Clusterfuck Fiasco is 27-year-old Daniel Wallace of Dry Ridge.

Wallace died on October 31 in Badin Kheyl, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 201st Combat Engineer Battalion, Kentucky Army National Guard in Cynthiana, Ky.

He is the 17th Kentucky National Guard member to die in our War on a Tactic, and the 11th Kentuckian and 3rd KNG member to die in Afghanistan.

Wallace was a 2001 graduate of Grant County High School. He enlisted in the Kentucky Army National Guard in May 2006 and was a member of Company C, of the 201st in Cynthiana. In Afghanistan, he was assigned to the battalion’s Company B, out of Olive Hill.

Wallace was mobilized for Operation Iraqi Freedom in March of 2008 and deployed to Afghanistan in May, where he was part of “Task Force Workhorse”, which is responsible for maintaining hundreds of miles of roads and removing roadside bombs or IEDs.

Wallace was serving as a gunner on an armor-protected vehicle. When a piece of equipment was knocked loose, he stepped outside the vehicle and was killed by a single bullet, (Kentucky Adjutant General Edward) Tonini said.

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At the time of his death, Wallace held the rank of Specialist (E4), but was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant (E5) and awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Army Good Conduct medal.

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Survivors include his parents, Karen and Kenneth Wallace, two brothers, Charles and Alex Wallace, a sister, Kim and a 6-year-old son.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

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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.

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