Army Sgt. Kenneth B. Gibson

Died August 10, 2008 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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25, of Christiansburg, Va.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; died of wounds sustained Aug. 10 in Balad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his position during dismounted operations.

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Schofield soldier killed in Iraq

By William Cole

Honolulu Advertiser

A Schofield Barracks soldier was killed in an explosion Sunday in Iraq, the Pentagon said yesterday.

Sgt. Kenneth B. Gibson, 25, of Christiansburg, Va., died of wounds suffered in Tarmiyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his position during a foot patrol, the Pentagon said.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

Gibson, who was a member of Hawaii’s Stryker brigade, joined the Army in March 2002 and was assigned to Schofield Barracks in August 2002, officials in Hawaii said.

A person who answered the phone at the family’s home in Virginia requested privacy.

Multi-National Force-Iraq, a U.S. command in the country, said a U.S. soldier and four Iraqis were killed, and others were wounded, during a “complex attack” Sunday in the largely Sunni Arab town of Tarmiyah, about 15 miles north of Baghdad.

The attack occurred about 2 p.m. Iraq time.

After an initial improvised explosive device detonated, a team of soldiers was sent to investigate, the U.S. command said. Shortly after the team arrived, a suicide attack occurred and was followed by small-arms fire.

The attacks also wounded two U.S. soldiers, 15 Iraqi civilians, three Iraqi policemen and three members of the “Sons of Iraq,” Sunni Arabs working with U.S. forces to maintain security.

Witnesses and police said the bombers were a group of men disguised as members of the Awakening, another name for the Sons of Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reported. The men entered the house ostensibly to search it, but planted bombs.

After the first blast, Iraqi and U.S. forces arrived, the Times said. The suicide bomber mingled with the crowd and detonated explosives worn in a vest.

The police initially said the bomber was a woman but later reported that there was no confirmation of that, the newspaper said.

The use of female suicide bombers is on the rise in Iraq. A female suicide bomber detonated explosives yesterday in Old Baqubah to the east of Tarmiyah, killing one Iraqi police officer, and injuring nine other police and four civilians.

“The use of female suicide bombers is an example of the desperate and indiscriminate actions that al-Qaida in Iraq inflicts on the innocent Iraqi people,” said Maj. Jon Pendell, a 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment spokesman.

More than 4,000 soldiers with the Hawaii-based Stryker brigade are serving a 15-month deployment in northern Baghdad and the region north of there. The soldiers left Hawaii in November and December.

Eleven Hawaii-based soldiers have been killed in Iraq since then.