More sad news tonight. We have two more US military deaths to recognize. Tonight we pay tribute to:
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US Army Sergeant Youvert Loney from Micronesia
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US Air Force Staff Sergeant Bryan D. Berky from Florida
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US Army Sergeant Youvert Loney
Youvert Loney from Pohnpei, Micronesia, joined the Army in October of 2005. He was trained as an infantryman. After he arrived at Fort Carson, Colorado in May of 2006, he took part in "the surge" in Iraqi with the 4th Brigade Combat Team from October 2006 to December 2007.
In June of this year, Loney deployed to Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Last month, that battalion was helping to provide security for Afghanistan’s presidential elections. According to the Colorado Springs paper, The Gazette:
The battalion has also been ranging into the highlands that dominate the brigade’s region southeast of Kabul to track down insurgent leaders and give aid to locals in a bid tor restart the economy.
The brigade’s work has been costly as the war in Afghanistan has reached an intensity unseen since 2001. Ten soldiers from the brigade have died over the summer, bringing the brigade’s losses to 123 soldiers killed during two deployments to Iraq and its time in Afghanistan.
On September 5th, the Sergeant's convoy was ambushed. Insurgents attacked using small arms and recoilless rifle fire. Sergeant Loney died from his wounds in Abad, Afghanistan. He was 28 years old.
Sergeant Loney, a US soldier from the Federated States of Micronesia, earned a Purple Heart, an Army Commendation Medal, an Army Good Conduct Medal, an Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Combat Star, and Combat Infantry Badge during his service to the United States. Sergeant Loney is the 34th Micronesian to die while supporting U.S. wars since 2003.
Army Sergeant Youvert Loney's remains are expected to be returned to Pohnpei on Friday. He is survived by his wife, his two children, and his father, Ioakim Loney. Funeral arrangements for the Army Sergeant have not been announced, but it is expected that he will be buried with full military honors once he is home.
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US Air Force Staff Sergeant Bryan D. Berky
Bryan Berky grew up in Starke, in Northern Florida, and graduated from Bradford County High School in 2002. About a year after graduating, he married his wife Erin, who had gone to Bradford also. Berky enlisted in the Air Force in 2003 and had been assigned to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and later to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.
Berky completed two previous deployments, serving in Kuwait and Afghanistan. In 2008, the airman was assigned to the 28th Civil Engineer Squadron, 28th Bomb Wing as an explosives ordnance disposal technician. The squad is based at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, just outside of Rapid City.
As an experienced bomb disposal expert, Berky was on a heavy rotation of six months deployed and six months at home. The 25-year-old Staff Sergeant was scheduled to return home in about a month.
The Staff Sergeant died of injuries suffered during combat in Afghanistan. He and two other US military personnel were killed by insurgents who attacked his team, on September 12th, with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. The three US troops and seven Afghan army troops were killed in an ambush near Bala Baluk, in the western region of Afghanistan.
According to The Gainesville Sun site:
As Berky's survivors grieve and plan for his funeral, others who knew him while he was growing up in North Florida recalled him as someone who loved music, fun and pranks.
"No matter what was going on, we could always count on him to bring a smile to anyone's face with a joke or something funny he would say," said Jaime Lyn Register, another member of the class of 2002. "It was like we could count on him to provide a light moment in the most serious of situations."
On Monday, all flags at Ellsworth Air Force Base flew at half-staff while the military community mourned the death of Staff Sergeant Bryan Berky.
Staff Sergeant Bryan D. Berky is the son of Sonya and William Berky, and brother to Jeremy Berky, all from Melrose, Florida. He is also survived by his wife, Erin and their infant son, Harrison, who was born in December of 2008. A funeral is planned to be held in Gainsville on Saturday. Staff Sergeant Berky will be buried with full military honors at a location not yet disclosed.
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Helping our troops:
If you wish to assist our military and their families, consider Operation Helmet, or Fisher House. If you have frequent flyer miles, they can be donated to hospitalized veterans or their families. See Fisher House’s Hero Miles program for details. Consider sponsoring a deployed service member at TroopCarePackage.com. Letters or care packages can make a real difference in a military person's life. To assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Also, you could visit:
When our veterans come back home, they need jobs. Look at the programs of Hire Heroes USA and Welcome Back Veterans to see if you can help out. The new KINship Project has also been of help our veterans or any Kossacks In Need.
About the IGTNT series:
"I Got the News Today" is a diary series intended to honor, respect, and remind us of the sacrifice of our troops. Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, noweasels, greenies, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, SpamNunn, a girl in MI, JeNoCo, Mediaprof, rb137, and TrueBlueMajority. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but are an important service to those Americans who have died and show our community’s respect for them.
Fallen service members whose names have been released by the Department of Defense will usually be diaried two days after the official announcement on the DoD website. This allows the IGTNT team to cover each person more fully, but still in a timely manner
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Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members mentioned here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.