Army Sgt. Luis R. Reyes

Died November 18, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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26, of Aurora, Colo.; assigned to the Army National Guard's 947th Engineer Company, Durango, Colo.; died Nov. 18 when the bus in which he was riding rolled over en route to Ali Al Salem, Kuwait.

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Colorado soldier killed in Kuwait-bound bus rollover

Associated Press

DENVER — A soldier from Aurora was killed when a bus bound for Kuwait rolled over, the Pentagon said Monday.

Sgt. Luis R. Reyes, 26, died and 19 other soldiers were injured in the rollover Friday.

Reyes was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 947th Engineer Company in Durango and was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The military did not say whether he was deployed in Iraq or where the accident took place.

The bus was en route to Ali Al Salem, Kuwait.

Christina Reyes said her husband had only been in Kuwait a couple of weeks. The couple have two children.

“I’m shocked,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d be burying my husband at 26. So no, I didn’t prepare for this at all. And I don’t know what to tell my kids, but we’re going to be OK.”

She said her daughter seems confused by what’s happened.

“She knows that something is wrong,” she said. “She knows that everyone is sad. Sometimes she cries for him. She is very much a daddy’s girl.”

The military gave no cause for the accident, but said it was under investigation.

The military said the victims were “evacuated by air and ground ambulances” to nearby military facilities. No details were provided about the extent of injuries.

The bus was carrying 30 U.S. soldiers. The driver, identified as a “third country national” under contract with the military, was also injured.

Oil-rich Kuwait has been a major ally of Washington since the U.S.-led 1991 Gulf War that liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation.

Kuwait was the launch pad for the 2003 war in Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein. It is still a logistics base for American and other coalition troops serving in Iraq.

Gov. Bill Owens said he was saddened to hear of the accident.

“This accident clearly shows that the brave men and women of the National Guard risk their lives in the support of our nation’s freedom,” he said.