Army Spc. Gregory A. Cox

Died September 27, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Carmichaels, Pa.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany; killed Sept. 27 when his military vehicle was unintentionally run off the road by a civilian vehicle in Balad, Iraq.

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Pennsylvania soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

CARMICHAELS, Pa. — A soldier from Greene County was killed in Iraq on Monday, officials said.

Military officials on Wednesday gave conflicting accounts of the Humvee accident which claimed the life of Spc. Gregory Cox, 21, of Carmichaels. Cox was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division.

According to Jack Gordon, a spokesman for the 99th Regional Readiness Command, which handles information on western Pennsylvania casualties, Cox was riding in an armored Humvee when an improvised explosive device detonated, causing the vehicle to overturn.

“Cox, a gunner in the vehicle, later died of injuries he sustained in the attack on the unit’s convoy,” Gordon said in a news release Wednesday morning.

Later Wednesday, the Defense Department issued a news release saying that Cox’s vehicle overturned when it was “unintentionally run off the road by a civilian vehicle causing it to rollover.”

The 99th Regional Readiness Command didn’t immediately return a call seeking an explanation for the differing accounts.

Dave Foster, an Army public affairs spokesman, said he had no further information on the Defense Department release. Foster said the Army likely won’t release more detailed information until an investigation of the accident is finished.

Cox’s family repeatedly refused to speak to The Associated Press.

Cox graduated from Geibel Catholic High School in Connellsville. He is the first soldier from Greene County to die in Iraq.