Four More Casualties Reported Overseas

Two soldiers, a Marine and a sailor are the casualties named in this report.

Sgt. Michael C. Roy's photo courtesy: WMUR-TV

(SALEM, Ore.) - Two more combat casualties have been reported in Afghanistan. An Army Specialist with the 4th Infantry Division, and a Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command Sergeant, were killed in operations July 8th.

Two U.S. servicemembers, an Army Private from the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq, and a Navy Aviation Ordnanceman Airman with the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan, died of non-hostile causes.

Army Private Lucas M. Bregg, 19, of Wright City, Missouri, died July 8th in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

A person named Rose left these words on a tribute site, "I truly feel your loss and pain. Lucas shall never be forgotten. My deepest sympathy to the friends and family. I appreciate all of his contributions to our country and may there be a special place for him in heaven."

In his own words, Lucas, who described himself as "the coolest redneck you will ever meet", wrote, "I have the perfect life. The perfect woman, job, everything. I got it all. I'm a soldier in the United States Army. I love to party. I have a beautiful fiance named Courtney. We're getting married when i get back from Iraq. She is an amazing woman. I love her more than anything in the world. she is my everything."

Specialist Gregory J. Missman, 36, of Batavia, Ohio, died July 8th at Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained elsewhere in Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms fire.

His father told WCPO in Cincinnati that his son had only been in Afghanistan for a month. Greg Missman was in the Army in the early 1990s but he had been out for 11 years. Jim Missman says a recent divorce led to his son's decision to re-enlist, so that he could provide health insurance for his son.

Greg Missman was assigned to the 704th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado.

The Department of Defense says circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

Marine Sergeant Michael C. Roy, 25, of North Fort Myers, Florida, died July 8th while supporting combat operations in Nimroz province, Afghanistan. He was part of the 3d Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Special Operations Advisor Group, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Michael Roy trained as a rifleman after joining the Corps in September 2001. He served three tours in Iraq prior to joining Marine Special Operations Command in March 2008. An article in the Marine Corps Times reports Maj. Michael Armistead, a command spokesman, saying Mike Roy's medals include the Purple Heart.

He is the fifth member of MarSOC to die in combat operations in Afghanistan since September 2007. The Marine Corps was not part of the Special Operations Command prior to November, 2005.

Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Darren Ethan Tate, 21, of Canyon, Texas died of non-hostile causes July 8th at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

He was assigned to the USS Iwo Jima, and deployed as an Individual Augmentee to Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan.

On his MySpace page, a friend wrote, "Hey kid. i miss you. it seems just like yesterday when you came home, now you are gone. you will be missed. Life is not fair, the ones who mean the most and do the most leave first"

The message "Darren...i remember when i saw you right before you left! it's so hard to imagine that you are gone! i will miss you so very much! it's not fair, but i hope to see you one day!" was left by his friend Michelle Ortiz.

A sibling wrote, "I love you little brother. I just saw you like a month and half ago and now you are gone. It was like yesterday to me that I was hugging you and telling you that i loved you. I dont know what to do now. I miss you already and i cant take it anymore. I love you Darren. Rest In Peace brother"

As far as we can tell, there have been no casualties in Iraq that were a result of direct combat, since the beginning of the pullout from the country's larger cities, on June 30th 2009.

Afghanistan has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days. The Marines moved 4000 combat troops into the country recently as part of Operation Khanjar or "Strike of the Sword."

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com