Army Sgt. Humberto F. Timoteo

Died June 5, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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25, of Newark, N.J.; assigned to Battery A, 3rd Battalion, 112th Field Artillery, Army National Guard, Morristown, N.J.; killed June 5 when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in Baghdad.

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Newark soldier one of four N.J. Guard members killed in Iraq

By Evan Berland

Associated Press

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. — Military officials gathered Tuesday for the second time in four days to confirm the deaths in Iraq of New Jersey National Guardsmen.

Sgt. Humberto Timoteo and Spc. Ryan Doltz were killed Saturday when a roadside bomb hit their armored vehicle. The two men, members of a field artillery unit, were providing security for a convoy when they were killed.

The deaths brought to four the number of New Jersey Guardsmen slain in Iraq since Thursday.

“The loss of a single soldier is difficult to the National Guard family and community,” said Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman. “It is inconceivable that we have had to face this many deaths in such a short period of time.”

Timoteo, 25, was from of Newark. Doltz, 26, was from Mine Hill. Both belonged to the 3rd Battalion of the 112th Field Artillery, headquartered in Morristown.

Two other members of the unit, Sgt. Frank Carvill, 51, of Carlstadt, and Spc. Christopher Duffy, 26, of Brick, were killed Friday in an ambush. Three other soldiers from the unit were injured in Friday’s attack.

In all, 10 soldiers from the unit have been injured in recent incidents. Five are being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Germany, National Guard officials said.

Timoteo’s wife, Army Sgt. Silvia Timoteo, said Tuesday that the risk of death is something anyone assumes on joining the military.

Though she said she is heartbroken, Silvia Timoteo said she believes in what her husband was doing. She is mother of a 3-year-old son and is getting an emergency transfer back to the U.S. from Korea, where she had been stationed.

“All these soldiers were dedicated to the service of their country and the state,” said Lt. Col. Robert Schofield, commander of the battalion.

Newark Mayor Sharpe James told The Star-Ledger of Newark that Timoteo had emigrated with his family from Portugal and grew up in the city’s Ironbound section.

“He served and fought to protect our liberties and values and he sacrificed his life for them,” James told the newspaper. “He is a hero in every sense of the word.”

Timoteo joined the military in 1996 and trained as a field artilleryman at Fort Sill, Okla., according to DoD records.

The 112th Field Artillery is a unit that normally would operate self-propelled howitzers, weapons that can fire as far as 18 miles, National Guard spokesman Roman Martyniuk said.

But the Iraq conflict required them to perform tasks closer to those associated with military police: patrol and security work, and protecting convoys, infrastructure and military installations.

Most units spent about three or four weeks training at Fort Dix before leaving for Iraq, according to Fort Dix spokeswoman Carolee Nisbet. The 112th Field Artillery members would have received training in the weeks before they left for the Middle East on Feb. 20.

Schofield said they received an additional two weeks of training when they arrived in Kuwait, where soldiers headed before getting to Iraq.

“Each conflict is different from the last and adjustments are made in training to compensate for that,” he said.