Army Spc. Quoc Binh Tran

Died November 7, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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26, of Mission Viejo, Calif.; assigned to the 181st Support Battalion, California Army National Guard, San Bernardino, Calif.; died Nov. 7 of wounds sustained that same day when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle as he was conducting convoy operations in Baghdad.

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Calif. National Guard soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

IRVINE, Calif. — Spc. Quoc Binh “Bo” Tran always told his family he wasn’t in danger in Iraq.

When he spoke to his mother for the last time a week ago, he told her again that he was safe because he was in a support battalion, not on the front lines.

“Don’t worry,” said Tran, a member of the California Army National Guard.

Tran, 26, of Mission Viejo, died Nov. 7 after an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad.

His father, Van Tran, was a former second lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army who says he was captured and placed in a “re-education camp” after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Van Tran said that as a young boy, Bo Tran had carried one sister on his shoulders and led the other by the hand as the family fled through the jungle in Vietnam.

Bo Tran had wanted to be a soldier since he was a little boy, his father said.

“I’m proud of Bo,” said Van Tran, an engineer in Irvine. “I’m proud he served his country.”

Tran was deployed with the 81st Brigade Combat team based at Camp Murray, Wash., about 30 miles south of Seattle.

He was a member of Detachment 3, Company B, 181st Support Battalion, which is located in San Bernardino. It is a unit of the Seattle-based 181st Support Battalion.