Army Sgt. Kurt E. Kruize

Died April 4, 2010 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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35, of Hancock, Minn.; assigned to the 367th Engineer Battalion, U.S. Army Reserve, St. Cloud, Minn.; died April 4 in Baghdad of wounds sustained in a noncombat-related incident.

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Dad: Reservist loved civilian job, his 4 children

By Steve Karnowski

The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — A 35-year-old soldier from St. Cloud who had four children died in Iraq a month after returning for his second tour of duty there, his father said.

Army Reserve Sgt. Kurt E. Kruize, 35, died April 4 in Baghdad of a noncombat-related injury, said his father, Lyle Kruize, of Hancock — the western Minnesota town where Kurt Kruize grew up.

Lyle Kruize said the Army hasn’t provided his family with further details about how his son died, but said that it is still investigating.

Kurt Kruize’s body arrived April 6 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. His wife, Billie Kruize, was flying back from Dover on April 7, his father said.

Funeral arrangements have not been set. Lyle Kruize said the Defense Department would fly his son’s body to St. Cloud once they are.

“I know one thing, he’s getting a full military funeral,” his father said.

Kurt Kruize was a 1993 graduate of Hancock High School, where he played football and basketball. He joined the Army Reserve when he was still in high school, Lyle Kruize said.

After graduating, he studied automotive mechanics at the technical college in Detroit Lakes and worked as a mechanic for several years. But he wanted to get out of that, and loved his job at the Viking Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in St. Cloud, Lyle Kruize said. The company’s human relations director said he was a forklift operator.

Lyle Kruize said his son and Billie Kruize got married in 1996 and had four children, who are ages 13, 10, 5 and 2. The family had been living in St. Cloud for at least three or four years, he said.

“He loved spending time with those kids,” Lyle Kruize said. “He did a lot of things with those kids.”

He also liked to hunt and fish, and loved being in the military, his father said.

Kurt Kruize is also survived by his mother, Beverly Kruize, of Hancock, a brother and two sisters.

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Was serving his 2nd tour in Iraq

The Associated Press

Kurt Kruize was a doting father, the type who went shopping with his daughters and waited while they tried on dresses, then commented on how beautiful his girls were.

He was shy but liked to goof off in front of the camera with silly hats and strange expressions. Friends said the quickest way to trigger his smile was to talk about his wife, Billie Jo, and their four children.

“His kids were foremost for him,” said Angela Kray, his wife’s cousin.

Kruize’s father, Lyle, said the 35-year-old from Hancock, Minn., died April 4 in Baghdad after being pinned between a truck and a trailer. He was based with the Army Reserve in St. Cloud, Minn., and was on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

The former football and basketball player graduated in 1993 from Hancock High School in Hancock, Minn. Relatives said while growing up in the small town, he’d spent countless hours boating, fishing and enjoying the outdoors around a nearby lake.

Lyle Kruize said once his son learned to hunt, “dad got skunked and son got a nice four- or six-point buck.”

Other survivors include his mother, Beverly.