 Argus Leader -- Two South Dakota National Guard soldiers from a Yankton unit were killed and three others were wounded Sunday when their convoy was hit by roadside bombs in Iraq.
 Sgt. 1st Class Richard Schild, 40, of Tabor and  Staff Sgt. Daniel M. Cuka, 27, of Yankton died after two improvised explosive devices blew up near their Humvees in Baghdad, said Gov. Mike Rounds.
Their convoy was attacked en route to an Iraqi police station.
Spec. Corey Briest of Yankton, Spec. Allen Kokesh of Yankton and Pvt. Warren Bender of Redfield were wounded. Their conditions were not released.
All of the men were assigned to Battery C, 1st Battalion, 147th Field Artillery, stationed in Yankton.
"Our hearts and our prayers are open for these folks," Rounds said Monday. "They leave behind families with children."
The two deaths bring the number of service members with South Dakota ties killed in the Iraq War to 15, including five National Guard members.
News of the loss has left the Yankton community in shock, Mayor Curt Bernard said.
"I believe that the community saw it as something that probably wouldn't happen here, and now it's here," Bernard said.
Joseph Gertsema, superintendent of the Yankton School District, called the men American heroes.
"They've given everything they can for this country," he said.
Cuka leaves behind his wife, Melissa, and two children, ages 2 and 5.
A graduate of Yankton High School, he worked as a line cook at Yesterday's Cafe along with his future wife while in high school.
'Always a smile' Owner Dan Trimble said news of Cuka's death was difficult to take.
"You hear about people dying, but this hits close to home," he said. "It's someone you knew."
Cuka was a hard worker who never said anything bad about anybody else, Trimble said.
"He had a reserved sense of humor," Trimble said. "It was not loud or obnoxious."
Wally Bosch, an assistant principal at Yankton High School for 19 years, remembered Cuka as a "nice kid who always had a smile on his face."
Teacher Paul Harens had Cuka and Schild in class at Yankton.
"They were both very fine, patriotic young men who were a credit to their community," Harens said.
Family man Schild was the office manager of Bon Homme Yankton Electric Cooperative. He and his wife, Kay, had two young children.
Co-workers described Schild as a dedicated family man.
"He loved Christmas," said Merlin Goehring, who worked with Schild at the electric cooperative. "He was always looking for new ways to decorate. He always wanted the Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving, and I would tell him, 'You can't light it up until Friday.' "
Ron Koupal, the retired general manager who hired Schild, said he enjoyed football and golf.
"He loved the Minnesota Vikings and the Nebraska Cornhuskers," Koupal said. "On Saturday, all the Cornhusker fans would get together and watch the game, and he was one of them."
Goehring said Schild graduated from Mount Marty College in Yankton and became interested in the National Guard.
On Monday, Goehring remembered what Schild had told him when he decided to re-enlist several years ago.
"He said he had never quit anything, and he didn't want to bow out of the Guard, even with the looming events in the Middle East," Goehring said.
Members of the Yankton community said the two men's deaths will hit hard.
"These are old, big, fun-loving, beautiful families that have been in the greater Yankton community for generations," said Bernie Hunhoff, a former state senator and publisher of South Dakota Magazine.
Members of the community and the National Guard will meet today to determine what they can do to help, said Guard spokesman Maj. Orson Ward.
The South Dakota National Guard now has more than 160 members serving in Iraq, Ward said. The vast majority are serving with the 147th.
Although trained primarily as an artillery unit, the group is now training and evaluating Iraqi police forces in and around Baghdad, Ward said.
The unit was activated in July and underwent several months of training at Fort Dix, N.J., before being deployed to Iraq in October. |
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