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Army Sgt. Carl J. Morgain
Died May 22, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
40, of Butler, Pa.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Butler, Pa.; died May 22 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries sustained in Kadasia, Iraq, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee.
Pa. National Guardsman killed in Iraq
Associated Press
BUTLER, Pa. — A National Guardsman was killed by a suicide car bomber Sunday in Khadasia, Iraq, Pennsylvania military officials said Tuesday.
Sgt. Carl Morgain, a National Guardsman from Butler, was sitting on a Humvee turret as he was patrolling an Iraqi police station when a car with taxi markings pulled up beside the vehicle and exploded, the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs said in a statement.
Three other Pennsylvania National Guardsmen and four Iraqi police were injured in the blast, officials said.
Before joining the National Guard in 2000, Morgain served in the Army from 1982 to 1986.
He was employed by T.W. Phillips Gas and Oil Co. in Butler.
Morgain, 40, was a member of A Company, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry. The Butler-based unit is a part of Task Force Dragoon, a group of 750 Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers who were deployed to Iraq in December, officials said.
“He was a very popular soldier in Task Force Dragoon during our training at Ft. Bliss (Texas) and Ft. Polk (La.),” said Lt. Col. Philip Logan, commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard Task Force in Iraq. “He was a great soldier, and will be missed by all of use here. We will honor his memory by continuing the fight.”
Morgain is survived by his wife, Janice, who is the leader of a nonprofit organization that sent care packages to soldiers. He is also survived by his 12-year-old daughter, Madison, and his 17-year-old stepson, Zachary Macurak.
In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press on Tuesday, Morgain’s family asked for “some privacy in dealing with our grief.”
“His family mourns the loss of this great American and also extends their thoughts and prayers to the many other families who have lost loved ones defending freedom and the country we love, throughout the world,” the statement said.
Morgain was the fourth Pennsylvania National Guard soldier to die of combat wounds in Iraq.