Army Spc. Christian J. Romig

Died January 5, 2011 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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24, of Kenner, La.; assigned to 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; died Jan. 5 of wounds suffered in the Khogani district of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. Also killed was Army Sgt. 1st Class Robert W. Pharris.

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Romig was first Fort Campbell casualty of 2011

By Jake Lowary

The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle

Fort Campbell, Ky., has reported the first death of 2011 in Afghanistan after a 4th Brigade Combat Team soldier was killed in an improvised explosive device attack.

According to a news release, Spc. Christian J. Romig, 24, died Jan. 5 after being struck by an IED blast in the Khogani district of Nangarhar province.

Romig and another soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Robert W. Pharris, 48, of Seymour, Mo., were killed in the attack. Pharris was assigned to the Missouri National Guard Agri-Business Development Team IV, Jefferson City, Mo.

Romig, a cavalry scout, was assigned to Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment.

A total of 106 soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division were killed in 2010, the deadliest year of fighting since 9/11 for the battle-hardened division.

Romig is survived by his parents, Leamen M. Romig Sr. and Rebecca L. Romig of Kenner, La.

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‘He was all heart, all warrior’

The Associated Press

One day when Christian Romig ordered a pizza, he decided it would be too easy to simply hand the delivery man a wad of cash and take his pie.

Romig was a wrestler on his high school team at the time and opened the door wearing a too-tight wrestling singlet, his sister Gabrielle Romig told The Times-Picayune newspaper.

“He made sure to do stretches and lunges in front of the poor guy before taking the pizza and handing the guy the money that he had stored in the singlet, God only knows where,” his sister said.

But that was her brother, always trying to make people laugh.

Romig, 24, of Kenner, La., and another soldier were killed by a roadside bomb Jan. 5 in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Fort Campbell, Ky. He graduated from Grace King High School in 2005.

Gabrielle Romig said her brother was a cavalry scout who served as a gunner on ground vehicles. He was just weeks away from coming home to visit when he was killed.

“He was all heart, all warrior; short body but just a man of gold,” the soldier’s uncle Tommy Walker told WGNO-TV.

Other survivors include his parents and three brothers.