Desmoines register -- A National Guard soldier from northwest Iowa who volunteered for a second tour of duty overseas was killed over the weekend when insurgents detonated a bomb under his armored Humvee, a military official said Monday.
Spc. Casey Byers, 22, of Schleswig, the father of an infant daughter, died about 8 p.m. Saturday south of Ramadi, said Lt. Col. Gregory Hapgood, the Iowa National Guard's public affairs officer. Also killed in the attack was Sgt. 1st Class Neal Prince, a regular U.S. Army soldier based at Fort Carson, Colo. He is not an Iowan.
In addition, Iowa National Guard Spc. James Migues Jr., 28, of Ottumwa was seriously wounded by shrapnel. He has been flown to a U.S. Army hospital in Germany and is expected to be transported to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for further medical care, Hapgood said.
Byers, who had been manning a .50-caliber machine gun on the Humvee, is the 28th Iowan to die in the war in Iraq since March 2003. Two others Iowans have been killed in Afghanistan.
The incident occurred as about 25 U.S. military vehicles were in a convoy that was moving equipment and soldiers along a road in Iraq's Sunni Triangle. While the convoy was traveling along the route, an explosive device was detonated without injuring anyone or destroying any vehicles, Hapgood said.
The convoy then stopped to attempt to capture insurgents and to check for additional explosives that might be planted in the area, Hapgood said.
Shortly afterward, a second explosive device was detonated without damaging a vehicle.
"As the security halt progressed further, eventually a third improvised explosive device - apparently it was quite powerful - exploded directly under an uparmored Humvee and destroyed the vehicle and killed both soldiers," Hapgood said.
Migues was injured by the blast as he patrolled on foot in front of the vehicle, Hapgood said.
Byers grew up in Vail, Ia. , and graduated in 2001 from Ar-We-Va High School, where he participated in football and track. He also attended Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville. He joined the Iowa National Guard in Denison in 1999 and served in Egypt from July 2003 to January 2004 on an Army National Guard peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula.
Last fall, Byers volunteered for duty in Iraq and arrived there in January with the Iowa National Guard's 224th Engineer Battalion. Before his deployment, he had worked for Casey's General Stores at the company's Ankeny warehouse.
Byers was the fourth soldier from the Guard's 224th Engineer Battalion, based in southeast Iowa, to be killed in Iraq this year.
Byers' survivors include a daughter, Hailey; his mother and father, Ann and William Byers; a brother, Paul; and a sister, Jennifer. Funeral arrangements are pending.
In Schleswig, a town of 833 people in Crawford County, residents reacted with stunned sadness. Word spread around the city on Sunday after worshippers were notified at Schleswig United Church of Christ, which the Byers family attended.
"I think everyone is shocked. It hit very close to home," said the Rev. Chris Burtnett, who was called early Sunday morning to be with the Byers family. "There was visible shock. A lot of tears, just disbelief."
Burtnett recalled the fallen Iowa Guardsman as a friendly young man, much like other members of his family. He said a candle burns on the lectern each Sunday in honor of soldiers overseas, but Byers' death is the first to bring the reality home.
"We've had several units from surrounding areas be deployed and come back, but never a death this close to home. It puts a very personal spin on it for people," Burtnett said.
Schleswig Mayor Carlton Petersen said an American flag stood at half-staff at a city monument that can be seen from the Byers home on U.S. Highway 59.
Petersen, a Korean War veteran who has lived in Schleswig for 70 years, said he can recall the sadness from losing a soldier. One of his cousins was killed in World War II.
"It's bound to happen as long as you have people that are in these National Guard units and people that enlist in the Army. They're stepping in harm's way, so we can't have the attitude that nothing is going to happen; it can happen," Petersen said.