Sep 18, 2007 8:55 am US/Central
Texan, 3 Other Fort Hood Soldiers Killed In Iraq
TYLER (AP) ―
An East Texas soldier was one of four from Fort Hood who died in Iraq when a bomb exploded near their vehicle during combat, the U.S. Department of Defense said Monday.
The four Fort Hood soldiers killed in Baghdad on Friday were Staff Sgt. Terry D. Wagoner, 28, of Piedmont, S.C.; Spc. Todd A. Motley, 23, of Clare, Mich.; Spc. Jonathan Rivadeneira, 22, of Jackson Heights, N.Y.; and Pvt. Christopher M. McCloud, 24, of Malakoff, Texas.
They were assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th U.S. Cavalry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood in Texas.
McCloud's father, Michael McCloud, said that his son's family, including Christopher's wife, Sheena, and their sons, 3-year-old Aiden and 2-year-old Landon, talked to Christopher on Thursday morning before his brigade departed on their mission.
After five months in Iraq, McCloud was scheduled to return home the first week of November.
"He was ready to do whatever it took," Michael McCloud told the Tyler Morning Telegraph. "I think maybe, in the last week or so, he had seen enough and was ready to come home but he wasn't ready to quit what was needed to be done."
Sheena McCloud said she wants everyone to remember her husband as a role model who believed in fighting for freedom.
"He believed that we needed to protect our country, and he wanted to be on the front lines of that," Sheena McCloud said. "He felt it a very big privilege to be able to do that."
McCloud enlisted in the U.S. Army in March and attended boot camp in Fort Knox.
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