Army Sgt. George Edward Buggs

Died March 23, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

---

31, of Barnwell, S.C.; assigned to 3rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.; killed after his convoy was ambushed in Iraq.

---

George Buggs, 83, of Barnwell, S.C., was speaking of the grandson he raised — and will now bury. But in a way, he was speaking for all those who have lost family members to the war.

“We hate very much to know this,” he said. “We wish it would never have happened.”

His grandson, George Buggs, 31, graduated in 1990 from Barnwell High School. The principal, Phil Flynn, said he was someone “who basically went about his business of being a good citizen.”

Flynn said 28 graduates of the high school are serving in this war. Now one of them has died.

Buggs was not much of a joiner in school, though in his freshman year he participated in the Junior ROTC program. “Just one of those quiet young men who sets a goal and goes toward it,” Flynn said.

Buggs left a wife, Wanda, and a son, who is in the sixth grade in Barnwell.

— USA Today and The Associated Press