Detroit Free Press -- Staff Sgt. Eugene Alex turned 32 on Aug. 30. It also was the day he was wounded by small-arms fire on traffic control duty in Baghdad, Iraq.

On Saturday, the former Reese and Bay City native died at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

No other details about his injuries or the circumstances in which he was shot were released by the Pentagon.

Alex was a cavalry scout who served with the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska.

He also was a "wonderful husband and excellent father" of two boys and a girl, ages 11, 8, and 6, respectively, said Sue Huntley, his mother-in-law.

Alex is the first member of the 3,900-member 172nd Brigade killed since U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the unit's extended deployment in July.

In Fairbanks last month, Rumsfeld said he could not promise that the full brigade would be home by the holidays.

Alex also is the second member of a Stryker Brigade, an armored tank unit, to die in Iraq. The first was Sgt. Gabriel G. DeRoo, 25, of Paw Paw, who was killed in August.

Alex, who grew up in Reese and later lived in Bay City, was back in Alaska earlier this year recuperating for three months from neck injuries he sustained when his unit was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq last October, Huntley said.

"He got through that roadside bomb and we thought he would be OK," she said.

Alex joined the Army in May 1996. He was recently married and had been working at a granary when he decided to enlist so that he could better provide for his family, Huntley said.

He served at Ft. Knox in Kentucky and Ft. Hood in Texas before going to Ft. Wainwright in September 2003.

He also was previously stationed in Bosnia and Korea.

"As a 10-year member of America's all-volunteer Army, Sergeant Alex willingly set aside the comforts of home to defend our nation and extend freedom to an oppressed people. Alaskans are proud to have had him as a part of our community, and we honor his memory," said Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski.

"He was a happy-go-lucky guy," Huntley said. "He always had a smile on his face."

In addition to his children, Alex is survived by his wife, Melissa; his parents, Ronald and Sally Alex of Greenie, and two sisters who live in Reese.