Army Sgt. Danny R. Soto

Died June 16, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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24, of Houston; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), Fort Lewis, Wash.; died June 16 in Rashidiyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle was struck an improvised explosive device. Also killed was Spc. Zachary A. Grass.

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Soldiers from Houston, Round Rock killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Two Texas soldiers, including an Army reservist from Round Rock, have died from wounds suffered in an explosion in Iraq, the Defense Department said June 18.

Spc. Dustin R. Brisky, 26, of Round Rock, died June 14 in Tallil. He was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 952nd Engineer Company in Paris, Texas.

The unit was attached to the 92nd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, at Fort Stewart, Ga.

On June 16, two soldiers died after an explosion near their vehicle in Rashidiyah. Killed were Army Sgt. Danny R. Soto, 24, of Houston, and Army Spc. Zachary A. Grass, 34, of Beach City, Ohio.

Both were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), Fort Lewis, Wash.

Also, Staff Sgt. Michael Bechert of New Castle, Ind., died June 14 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Bechert, 27, was wounded when his vehicle struck an explosive device May 30 in Baghdad.

Bechert was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division based in Schweinfurt, Germany.

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Family remembers soldier killed in Iraq as kind, selfless

The Associated Press

Army Sgt. Danny R. Soto begged his mother to send candy. After the last shipment, she learned the sweet stuff was meant for Iraqi children.

“He was a guy who was always thinking about other people, not about him,” said his sister, Marci Soto.

Soto, 24, of Houston, Texas, was killed June 16 by a roadside bomb in Rashidiyah, Iraq. He was assigned to Fort Lewis, Wash.

Soto was born in Honduras and moved to Texas with his family when he was 11. He worked two jobs in Houston to support his wife and young son until enlisting three years ago.

“He always used to say, ‘I want to be where the action is. The Army is always the action.’ That was his dream,” his sister said.

Recent photos the soldier sent home told of his giving. “He had sent me pictures last week of him where he was passing candy to a lot of little kids there in Iraq,” Marci Soto said. She said when her brother later talked to their mother, he told her, “Send me a lot of candy, Mom.”

“I told my mom he was giving the candy to all those kids. It wasn’t even for him,” she said.

He is survived by his wife, Vanessa, and their son, Jonathen, 4.