Schweinfurt troops remember two soldiers

[lebkuchen]

Blodgett, 21, grew up in Wyoming, Mich., and graduated from Grand Rapids Central Catholic High School in 2002. He played trumpet in the school band and practiced tae kwon do.

After joining the Army in May 2003, he landed in Germany with the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment. He trained first as a driver, then as a dismounted scout, in the unit’s Troop A before the unit deployed to Iraq in February.

Blodgett had joined more than 100 patrols when he and his squad left Forward Operating Base McKenzie, 60 miles north of Baghdad, late on the night of July 20 for a patrol in nearby Abdalluyah. He was driving — filling in for another soldier on R&R leave — when his Bradley fighting vehicle hit a roadside bomb. He died, and six of his buddies were injured.




Zangara, 21, was born in Philadelphia, 25 days after Blodgett.

He joined the Army straight out of high school and landed with the Schweinfurt-based 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment after training as a 13D fire-direction specialist. He deployed to the Middle East with his unit in February.

Zangara was in his Humvee, the trail vehicle of a patrol escorting a fuel convoy to Tikrit along Iraq’s Highway 1 on the scorching afternoon of July 24 when an improvised bomb exploded beside the road and lacerated him with shrapnel.

Only a little while earlier, he had called his wife, Melanie, to wish her a happy birthday, according to the Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times newspaper. He told her he would be going home on leave next week.



http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=23541

[Toots]

1. I was stationed at Ledward barracks in Schweinfort

in 1970.