Louisville Courier-Journal -- A Shepherdsville, Ky., native was one of the five U.S. soldiers killed Friday in an attack that Army officials said was the deadliest against U.S. troops in Iraq in more than a year.

Army Staff Sgt. Gary L. Woods Jr., 24, and four other soldiers were killed Friday when a bomber driving a truck detonated a ton of explosives near a police headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. military said that Iraqi police were the bomber’s target and that the Americans were caught up as bystanders.

Two Iraqi policemen also were killed in the midmorning blast near the Iraqi National Police headquarters. At least 62 people, including an American soldier and 27 civilians, were wounded, officials said.

Woods’ father, Gary Woods Sr., said that his son, who went by his middle name, Lee, was a talented musician who sang and played the trombone, drums, piano and guitar while a student at Bullitt Central High School. He was also a member of the school’s football team. 
But after finding satisfaction in ROTC classes, his son entered the military after high school, he said.

“He joined the Army just as we were going into the second gulf war,” Woods Sr. said by telephone from his home in Lebanon Junction. “He knew the chances were that we’d still be in it, but he was convinced that’s what he wanted.”

Woods rose to staff sergeant and was leading the soldiers’ mission the day they died, his father said.

The other soldiers killed in the attack were Staff Sgt. Bryan E. Hall, 32, of Elk Grove, Calif.; Sgt. Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis; Cpl. Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa; and Pvt. Bryce E. Gautier, 22, of Cypress, Calif.

All were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo. 
Woods was on his third tour in Iraq and was to return to the United States in four months, his father said. He was to be reassigned to Fort Knox, where he and his wife, Christie, who had been his high school girlfriend, could be closer to family.

Woods Sr. said his son had spoken off and on about making a career of the Army and had just re-enlisted. But his son had also been thinking of life after military service.

“He really wanted to get out and start having a family,” his father said.

His son was mature and cared about others, which made him both a good soldier and a good person, Woods Sr. said.
“I want everyone to know what a good man he was.”