Army Spc. Cody L. Wentz

Died November 4, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Williston, N. D.; assigned to the 141st Engineer Battalion, North Dakota Army National Guard, Williston, N.D.; killed Nov. 4 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle while he was on patrol in Iraq.

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N.D. Guardsman killed in Iraq Humvee attack

Associated Press

WILLISTON, N.D. — An attack on a vehicle carrying three North Dakota National Guard soldiers in Iraq killed one of the soldiers and seriously wounded another, the Guard said Friday.

Spc. Cody Wentz, 21, of Williston, died in the attack, said Maj. Gen. Michael Haugen, the state Guard commander. Spc. Philip Sorenson, 21, of Williston, was taken to a hospital in Germany. The extent of his injuries was not known Friday night. A third soldier in the Humvee escaped injury.

The soldiers are members of Company A, 141st Engineer Combat Battalion. They were in a Humvee that was attacked with an explosive while returning from a mission near Balad on Thursday night, the Guard said.

“The entire North Dakota National Guard family is saddened by the loss of Specialist Wentz and the injury of Specialist Sorenson,” Haugen said. “As a family we will pull together, and we extend our support and prayers to their families.”

Gov. John Hoeven called Wentz a “brave North Dakotan and a brave American” and offered his condolences to the family. He said he and first lady Mikey Hoeven were praying for Sorenson.

Guard spokesman Rob Keller said members of a family support group were notifying all families of the soldiers in the 141st.

Wentz, who was single, enlisted in the Guard in November 2000, with Company B of the 164th Engineer Combat Battalion. He was promoted from private first class to specialist the day before he was killed. He was the son of Kenneth and Joyce Wentz, of Williston, and had two grown brothers.

Keller said Sorenson also is single.

Amy Wells, a spokeswoman for the Wentz family, said the family members were doing “as well as can be expected.”

She said the community has responded with “hugs and encouragement, gifts of food and kind words.”

“This is the first loss that Williston has had happen, and families ... are in shock and grieving the loss,” Wells said.

Funeral arrangements had not been made Friday night, she said. The Guard said a memorial service was being planned in Iraq.

Wentz’s death was the seventh among North Dakota National Guard soldiers serving in Iraq, and the tenth among U.S. service members from North Dakota or serving with North Dakota military units on duty in Iraq.

Three other members of the 141st have been killed in Iraq: Staff Sgt. Lance Koenig, 33, of Fargo, was killed in September; Spc. Philip Brown, 21, of Jamestown, and Spc. James Holmes, 28, of East Grand Forks, Minn., were killed in May. About 20 have been wounded.

About 475 members of the 141st are stationed in Iraq. They started arriving in Kuwait on Feb. 15, expecting to serve about a year. They are stationed mainly near Balad and Baqubah, just north of Baghdad, and near Tikrit, the home town of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.