Army Spc. Brian K. Baker

Died November 7, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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27, of West Seneca, N.Y.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.; killed Nov. 7 when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his security patrol in Baghdad.

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Fort Drum soldier killed in Iraq

By Carolyn Thompson

Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Fort Drum soldier killed in an explosion in Baghdad was the “perfect husband” who was soon to become a father to twin girls, said his expectant wife in Texas.

Spc. Brian K. Baker, 27, born in Springville, south of Buffalo, was killed Sunday when a vehicle bomb exploded near his patrol, the Department of Defense said.

Amy Roach Baker said her husband of 13 months told her he was filled with a warm feeling when he found out they were expecting identical twins in January.

“I hope they look like him because I need to see him every day,” she told her hometown newspaper, the Midland (Texas) Reporter-Telegram. “I just wish I could feel that (warm feeling) right now. I feel so empty.”

Baker was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, the military’s most-deployed division, based out of Fort Drum.

Rusty Roach said his son-in-law was in Iraq “because he wanted to be, not because he had to be.”

Near his hometown, 30 miles south of Buffalo, the flag flew at half-staff Tuesday outside the East Concord Volunteer Fire Department, where Baker had been a junior firefighter. He joined the Army shortly after graduating from Springville-Griffith Institute in 1996 with the goal of making it his career, friends said.

“You might say it was his calling,” said Lori Ploetz, a longtime family friend who was serving as family spokeswoman Tuesday. “He was great at what he did. He was respected by his peers.”

She said Baker’s parents, Gregory and Holly Baker of Springville, did not want to talk to reporters. They planned to travel to Texas for their son’s funeral, she said, and would plan a later memorial service in western New York. It was not immediately known when Baker’s body would be returned to the United States.

“The family would like to thank (the community) for showing their support and concern,” Ploetz said.

The family also issued a plea for help in finding Baker’s older brother, Gregory, who has not been in recent contact with the family but was believed to be living in Buffalo. The Erie County Sheriff’s Department was assisting.

Amy Baker, who has a 4-year-old son, remembered her husband’s “wonderful laugh.”

“He always thought my jokes were stupid, but he’d laugh anyway,” she said.