Army Sgt. 1st Class Todd C. Gibbs

Died December 7, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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37, of Lufkin, Texas; assigned to 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Greaves, Korea; killed Dec. 7 when an improvised explosive device detonated while his unit was on a dismounted patrol in Khalidiyah, Iraq.

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Family grieves soldier killed in Iraq

By Jamie Stengle

Associated Press

Sgt. 1st Class Todd C. Gibbs of Lufkin, Texas, was still mourning the death of a fellow soldier two days earlier when he was killed by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Iraq, his family said.

“Todd had been real distraught about that,” Gibbs’ brother, 33-year-old Bret Gibbs, said Thursday in a telephone interview from Lufkin. “I think he was real worried about that gentlemen’s family.”

Gibbs, 37, was killed Tuesday in Khalidiyah, just two days after the death of Staff Sgt. Kyle A. Eggers, 27, of Euless, who had been stationed with him in Korea.

Gibbs’ death brings the number of Texas soldiers killed in Iraq since the war began to at least 116.

Gibbs, who had been in the Army for 13 years, was deployed to Iraq in August as part of the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Camp Greaves, South Korea, his brother said.

“Todd was the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off his back,” Bret Gibbs said. He said friends of his brother have been calling him saying the same words.

Bret Gibbs said that his brother grew up in Lufkin, graduating from high school in 1986. He went on to earn a criminal justice degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville.

“After college he had a change of heart in the direction he wanted to take,” Bret Gibbs said. “He decided to enlist in the Army.”

Todd Gibbs’ wife, Melissa Gibbs, their 1-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter live in Killeen, where he had been stationed at Fort Hood prior to being sent for a year to Korea.