Army Spc. Seth R. Trahan

Died February 19, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Crowley, La.; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, Louisiana Army National Guard, Crowley, La.; killed Feb. 19 when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was on patrol in Baghdad.

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Louisiana soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

CROWLEY, La. — A 20-year-old soldier with Louisiana’s 256th Brigade Combat Team was killed in Iraq when he was struck by an improvised explosive device, the Louisiana National Guard said on Sunday.

Details about the death of Sgt. Seth Randell Trahan, who was killed Saturday, were not immediately released and his mourning Crowley family declined to speak with reporters over the weekend.

Trahan served with the Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 256th Brigade Combat Team, a Lafayette-based brigade that shipped about 4,000 soldiers to Iraq in November.

Since January, the 256th has lost eight soldiers, including six Guardsmen who died Jan. 6 when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

In Iraq, the military reported that the only U.S. soldier killed in Iraq on Saturday was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad.

On Saturday, eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession in a wave of attacks that killed 55 people as Iraqi Shiites commemorated Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite religious calendar.

The U.S. soldier killed in Baghdad was among American troops responding to calls for assistance from Iraqi forces unable to cope with a slew of attacks.

It was unclear which of the attacks in Baghdad claimed the life of the American soldier. A second soldier was wounded in the assault, which also killed an Iraqi, the military said.

Louisiana National Guard officials would not say whether Trahan was the same soldier as the one killed by the suicide bomber.

Trahan, a Crowley native, graduated from Northside Christian School in 2002. He is survived by his parents, Randy and Emma Trahan, four sisters and his fiancee.

The family released an e-mail the soldier wrote home on Jan. 18.

“I have lived free in America for 20 years, and I am willing to give up one year so that someone else can have the chance to experience the freedom that we take for granted everyday,” he wrote.

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Crowley soldier killed in Iraq buried

CROWLEY, La. — More than a thousand mourners gathered Saturday to pay tribute to Sgt. Seth Randell Trahan, a 20-year-old Crowley soldier killed in Iraq last week.

Trahan was remembered as a proud, well-liked and deeply Christian soldier with the Louisiana National Guard.

“I truly believe with my whole heart his whole mission was accomplished on earth,” his mother, Emma Trahan, said through tears. “We’re broken and we’re sad, but we’re at peace.”

Trahan died Feb. 19 while on patrol with the Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion of the 256th Brigade Combat Team. He joined the guard shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks, his pastor said.

“Seth loved what he was doing,” Emma Trahan said. “He loved America and he loved Jesus.”

“We’ve all been through the pain, the shock and sorrow of this week,” Randy Trahan, his father, said. “But just as real are the memories of Seth. And just as real, more so than that, is the eternal life that he partakes of today.”

Trahan received 10 medals, including the Bronze Star and the Army Achievement Medal.

“The Bible said that there is no greater love than a man laying down his live for his fellow man,” his church pastor, Loyd Singley, said.

Singley said soldiers who served with Trahan wrote his family to say he steered them toward religion and helped reform their lives. Trahan was an active member of Northside Assembly of God, where his father, Randy, is an associate pastor and his mother teaches in the church school.

Mourners waited in line for up to four hours for visitation and an estimated 1,500 people attended the service at Northside Assembly of God.

Major General Bennett C. Landreneau, commanding officer of the Louisiana National Guard, attended the service as did Sgt. Maj. John Morrow, the guard’s top enlisted officer.

A massive flag, donated by a local bank, was draped over an outside wall of the church. The national anthem was sung with images of Trahan in uniform and at home played on an overhead screen. Trahan’s friend, Kevin Johnson, sang Toby Keith’s “American Soldier.”

Trahan is survived by his parents, four sisters and his fiancee.

Trahan was buried in Crowley’s Woodlawn Cemetery with full military honors.

— Associated Press