Army Sgt. Michael C. Carlson

Died January 24, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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22, of St. Paul, Minn.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck, Germany; killed Jan. 24 when his Bradley fighting vehicle overturned in Mohammed Sacran, Iraq. Four other soldiers were also killed.

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Minnesota soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

ST. PAUL — A Minnesota solider was killed in Iraq this week, KSTP-TV reported Friday night.

Sgt. Mike Carlson, 22, died less than a month before his 23rd birthday, which would have been on Valentine’s Day, the station reported. He had been in Iraq for almost a year and been due to return to his unit’s home base in Germany next week.

His older brother, Dan Carlson, told KSTP-TV that their parents were away on a cruise when a military representative showed up at their home with the news Thursday, and that they were on their way home Friday night.

The report did not say exactly when or where Carlson was killed in Iraq. His death had not been announced by the Defense Department as of Friday night.

Carlson was a two-sports star at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, and was a defensive lineman on its 1999 state champion football team. He graduated in 2000.

Carlson “was a real nice kid. He’s somebody whose life didn’t deserve to end like this,” Mike Scanlan, a football coach at Cretin-Derham Hall, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

His football and wrestling teammate, Ricky Schreier, told KSTP that Carlson had often talked about joining the military.

“He was excited about it,” Schreier said. “He wanted to do it for about a year, and then he went off into it, and I was happy for him. He did what he wanted to do.”

Schreier called Carlson “a big brother figure to me. He’s also a hero too, for serving our country.”

Schreier told the Star Tribune that Carlson, who was two years older, watched out for him at football and wrestling practice, and even in the school halls.

“When I was a freshman, I only weighed a hundred pounds,” Schreier recalled. “People would throw me into the lockers, joking around, and he would always tell them to stop.”

“He always had a smile on his face,” his wrestling coach, Brad Ruff, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He said Carlson was the type of man who was always striving to be better, urging his teammates on. “He was just a quality kid,” said Ruff, who had equal praise for Carlson’ parents, who were always out supporting their children.

Carlson was the 12th service member from Minnesota to die in military operations in Iraq since the start of the war.