Army Staff Sgt. Marco A. Silva

Died March 13, 2006 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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27, of Alva, Fla.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; killed March 13 when he came under small arms fire and an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations near Ramadi, Iraq. Also killed was Sgt. Corey A. Dan.

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101st Airborne soldier loved his job, says sister

NARANJA, Fla. — A Tennessee soldier who grew up in Florida was killed in Iraq when an improvised explosive device hit his battalion, joining five other 101st Airborne soldiers killed this week.

Staff Sgt. Marco A. Silva, 27, died Monday near Ramadi, the Defense Department said. The Department of Defense listed his hometown as Alva, Fla., although he has lived in Cumberland City, Tenn., since 2001.

He will be buried in Naranja next week.

Sgt. Corey A. Dan, 22, of Norway, Maine, also died in the incident.

Both men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, based on Fort Campbell, Ky.

In an e-mail Silva sent to his family last month, he told them he was fighting in Iraq so you “don’t have to suffer with the war,” family members said Friday.

“That was his job. He loved to do what he did,” his sister Rachel Silva said.

Silva was born in Fort Polk, La., but spent most of his life in Florida. He graduated from Homestead Senior High School in 1999. He joined in the Army in late 2001 and later moved to Cumberland City with his wife, Shannon, and two children, relatives said.

“He was funny. He always like to play around. He loved his children. He loved animals,” said Rachel Silva.

He returned to Tennessee last fall for a brief vacation and the family celebrated an early Christmas and Thanksgiving, his sister said.

“He was a good man. He was young and he loved his life,” she said. “It’s sad, but we supported his decision to go overseas.”

Funeral services are scheduled for Friday, March 24, at Palms Woodlawn Funeral Home and Cemetery in Naranja.

— Associated Press

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Six soldiers from 101st killed in Iraq

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Six soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division have been killed in Iraq this week in a series of attacks across the country, Army officials said Friday.

Pfc. Angelo A. Zawaydeh, 20, of San Bruno, Calif., died in a mortar attack at a traffic control point in Baghdad on Tuesday, Fort Campbell officials said. Zawaydeh was a member of the 502nd Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat team.

Staff Sgt. Marco A. Silva, 27, of Alva, Fla., and Sgt. Corey A. Dan, 22, of Norway, Maine, were killed Monday while on patrol near Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold about 70 miles west of Baghdad, the Army said. Both soldiers belonged to 506th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team.

A fourth soldier was shot and killed Thursday while manning an observation post in Samarra following a large helicopter-borne operation north of Baghdad. Two more soldiers were killed in indirect fire outside Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Army officials said.

The most recent deaths bring the number of soldiers from Fort Campbell killed in the war in Iraq to 135. The most soldiers from the division killed in a single day was 17 in November 2003.

The names of three of the most recent soldiers killed will not be released until their families can be notified, said Cathy Gramling, a spokeswoman at Fort Campbell.

There were no immediate plans for a memorial service, but Gramling said the deaths are being observed by everyone.

“Every loss of a soldier affects us greatly, whether it’s one at a time or multiple casualties,” she said.

The deaths occurred over a vast swath of Iraq, ranging from Tikrit at the northern tip of the so-called Sunni Triangle through Baghdad, about 150 miles south.

The deaths come just as some 1,500 troops from the 101st Airborne and Iraq’s 4th Division complete what the Army characterized as the largest air assault since the war began. The soldiers swept through a 100-square-mile area near Samarra in search of insurgents and weapons.

Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, 101st Airborne Division spokesman, said about 40 suspects were detained, 10 of whom were later released, and six weapons caches were found.

Lynda Knowlton, a teacher at Oxford Hills High School in Maine, remembered one of the soldiers killed, Dan, as being set on joining the military when he left school.

“He was gung-ho,” Knowlton said. “He was thrilled to go to the military.”

Dan’s grandmother Sharon Bouchard said he died without ever seeing his son, who was born last December on the same day he departed for his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Silva, 27, who lived in Cumberland City, Tenn., will be buried in Naranja, Fla., next week.

In an e-mail Silva sent to his family last month, he told them he was fighting in Iraq so you “don’t have to suffer with the war,” family members said Friday.

“That was his job. He loved to do what he did,” his sister Rachel Silva said.

Silva was born in Fort Polk, La., but spent most of his life in Florida. He graduated from Homestead Senior High School in 1999. He joined the Army in late 2001 and later moved to Cumberland City, Tenn., with his wife, Shannon, and two children, relatives said.

“He was funny. He always liked to play around. He loved his children. He loved animals,” said Rachel Silva.

He returned to Tennessee last fall for a brief vacation and the family celebrated an early Christmas and Thanksgiving, his sister said.

“He was a good man. He was young and he loved his life,” she said. “It’s sad, but we supported his decision to go overseas.”

— Associated Press