Army Spc. Phillip N. Sayles

Died May 28, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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26, of Jacksonville, Ark.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.; killed May 28 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his security position in Mosul, Iraq.

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Ark. soldier killed in Iraq by insurgent bomb

Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — An Arkansas soldier who was a member of a Stryker Brigade and who died in an insurgent bombing in Iraq was remembered Tuesday as a hard worker and a team player.

Spc. Phillip N. Sayles, 26, of Jacksonville, died Saturday in Mosul, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near a security position, the Department of Defense Web site said. Sayles attended North Pulaski High School for three years before transferring to Cabot High School, where he graduated.

“Nick was the kind of young man who was going to do the right thing, and obviously what he felt was the right thing was to go into the military,” Robert Jones, Sayles’ Reserve Officers Training Corps instructor, said Tuesday.

Sayles entered the military in May 2002 and was stationed with the Army’s 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Wash.

His death brings to 32 the number of soldiers from the 1st Brigade, Fort Lewis’ second Stryker Brigade, to be killed in Iraq. The unit was deployed in October.