Duane A. Thornsbury

Thursday, September 17 2009 @ 03:11 AM MDT

State Journal -- BAGHDAD -- The United States Department of Defense announced Monday that Sergeant First Class Duane A. Thornsbury died from injuries Saturday.

Thornsbury, 30, of Bridgeport, W. Va. was involved in a non-hostile vehicle rollover during a combat mission in Baghdad, Iraq, and died at the 10th Combat Support Hospital there, according to a release from the United States Army Special Forces Command.

The accident is under investigation, the release says.

He was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as a member of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Arabian Peninsula, according to the release, and was assigned to the Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Carson, Colorado.

Thornsbury enlisted in the U. S. Army Reserves back in April 1996 and came onto active duty service in September 2002, the release says.

He later attended the Special Forces Qualification Course, earning his Green Beret in 2006, as a Weapons Sergeant.

==Another news story==

The Associated Press -- One of Duane “Tony” Thornsbury’s friends said it wasn’t often you meet a person who will make you stop and think, “there is just something about them.”

But “Tony was that guy!” Sgt. James Smith wrote in an online memorial.

Other friends recalled Thornsbury in a similar fashion.

“He was a go-getter, a no-nonsense type of soldier,” Tony Batts wrote in the same online message board, noting he served with Thornsbury in Iraq from 2003-04.

Thornsbury, 30, of Bridgeport, W.Va., died Sept. 12 in Baghdad of injuries suffered in a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to Fort Carson, Colo., and graduated from Grafton (W.Va.) High School, where he was on the wrestling team.

Holly Lane of Winchester, Va., recalled Thornsbury as “a part of our family” when he dated her older sister years ago.

“He was the one to teach me how to ride a horse and gave me riding lessons,” Lane wrote online.

He was on his third deployment to Iraq. Thornsbury had earned his Green Beret in 2006, becoming a weapons sergeant.

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