Army Sgt. 1st Class Richard S. Gottfried

Died March 9, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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42, of Lake Ozark, Mo.; assigned to the 1st Division Support Command, 1st Infantry Division, Kitzengen, Germany; killed March 9 when his Humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device in Tampa, Iraq.

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Missouri solider killed by bomb in Iraq

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A soldier killed when a bomb hit the Humvee he was driving in Iraq is remembered by family as a man who loved his wife, children and work in the Army.

Sgt. 1st Class Steve Gottfried, 41, was killed March 9 in the Sunni Triangle area of central Iraq. The Lake Ozark man was about to retire after serving almost 20 years in the Army.

“He loved his war, and he loved his Army,” said sister-in-law Nancy Yakich. “I remember his sense of humor, his wit, his kindness and his honesty.”

Gottfried’s son, Eric, said his father had been kept in Iraq because of a shortage of workers in his military specialty.

“Everyone thought he was invincible,” Eric said. “You don’t know why something like this would happen to someone so good.”

Gottfried was the 553rd American service member to die since the Iraqi conflict started; 554 have died since the United States launched the Iraq war in March. Most of those deaths occurred after President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1.