Army Staff Sgt. Chad A. Caldwell

Died April 30, 2008 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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24, of Spokane, Wash.; assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas; died April 30 in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries sustained while conducting dismounted combat operations.

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Army Staff Sgt. Chad A. Caldwell remembered

The Associated Press

While overseas, Chad A. Caldwell made frequent, short phone calls and used instant messaging to stay close to his family, especially when his wife was expecting their oldest son, Trevor.

“It’s hard to say all you want to in three minutes. You always forget things,” said his wife, Rachael. “But he always talked to Trevor — we put the phone up to my stomach.”

The night Trevor was born, Caldwell called his wife from Baghdad and heard his son’s first loud cry over a cell phone.

Caldwell, 24, of Spokane, Wash., was killed April 30 when a roadside bomb exploded while he was on patrol in Mosul. He was a 2001 high school graduate and was assigned to Fort Hood.

Caldwell joined the Army in 2002, served one tour in Iraq, then a second combat tour in Afghanistan. In February 2007 he signed up for another tour of Iraq.

During his tours, Caldwell earned two Army Commendation Medals, for saving the life of a pregnant woman found under a pile of bodies after the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad was bombed in 2003 and for saving the life of his lieutenant colonel, who was caught in gunfire.

He also is survived by another son, Coen, 2.