Active Unit News

April 29, 2003
Fort Hood units suffer first Iraq fatalities
BY KEVIN J. DWYER
Herald Staff Writer
Fort Hood suffered its first casualties of Operation Iraqi Freedom on Friday, as two soldiers deployed to Iraq lost their lives in separate incidents. The two soldiers were 1st Lt. Osbaldo Orozco, 26, of Delano, Calif., and Spc. Narson B. Sullivan, 21, North Brunswick, N.J. Orozco was a platoon leader assigned to Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. According to the Department of Defense, he died when the vehicle he was riding in rolled over while it was traveling through rough terrain. According to the DoD release, Orozco's unit was acting as a quick-reaction force and was responding to an enemy ambush when he was killed. He had been in the Army for about two years, and was assigned to Fort Hood on June 11, 2002. Sullivan was a military policeman serving with the 411th Military Police Company, which deployed from Fort Hood as part of the 720th MP Battalion in early March. He was killed by what the DoD release describes as a non-combat weapon discharge. Sullivan entered the Army Aug. 11, 2000, and had been assigned to Fort Hood since Feb. 1. Both soldiers' deaths are under investigation. As of Monday, 137 American servicemen and women had been killed while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. One soldier, Spc. Edward J. Anguiano, 24, of Brownsville, Texas, was listed as missing in action. However, the DoD announced Monday that his remains were recovered by U.S. forces on Thursday. Anguiano was in a six-vehicle convoy on Highway 7 in Iraq on March 23, 2003, when enemy forces ambushed them. He was assigned to 3rd Combat Support Battalion, Fort Stewart, Ga.