U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010, at least 4,374 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,639 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

U.S. Troop Casualties in Iraq

Latest identification:

Army Pfc. Gifford E. “GJ” Hurt, 19, Yonkers, N.Y., died Jan. 20, 2010 in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related accident [crash of a Humvee in which he was a passenger]. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 144th Field Artillery Regiment, 214th Fires Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Sill, Okla.

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan

As of Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, at least 884 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

Latest identifications:

Army Spc. Robert Donevski, 19, Sun City, Ariz., died Jan. 16, 2010 in Abad, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael P. Shannon, 52, Canadensis, Pa., died Jan. 17, 2010 in Kabul, Afghanistan, of a heart attack. He was assigned to Headquarters, 7th Army and U.S. Army Europe, Heidelberg, Germany.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adam K. Ginett, 29, Knightdale, N.C., died Jan. 19, 2010 near Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 31st Civil Engineer Squadron, Aviano Air Base, Italy.

Army Capt. Paul Pena, 27, San Marcos, Texas, died Jan. 19, 2010 in Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Army Staff Sgt. Thaddeus S. Montgomery, 29, West Yellowstone, Mont., died Jan. 20, 2010 at Korengal Outpost, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy M. Kane, 22, Towson, Md., died Jan. 23, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Xin Qi, 25, Cordova, Tenn., died Jan. 23, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Fourth Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Marine Expeditionary Brigade–Afghanistan.

Marine Sgt. Daniel M. Angus, 28, Thonotosassa, Fla., died Jan. 24, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy J. Poole, 22, Bowling Green, Ky., died Jan. 24, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Marine Lance Cpl. Zachary D. Smith, 19, Hornell, N.Y., died Jan. 24, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties

Honor the Fallen

Click to visit the Military Times Hall of Valor

Visit Military Times — The top source for military news

Faces of the Dead
An interactive look at each U.S. service member who died in Afghanistan or Iraq

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Related report

5,158 U.S. Dead — And She Draws (Almost) Every One

By Peter Jeary

World Blog
January 27, 2010

LONDON — At first glance, it looks like the partial remains of an ancient mosaic or the garble of an out-of-order digital billboard. Then the scale of the work grabs your attention: It sprawls across three walls of a gallery in London’s trendy Chelsea district, stretching more than 40 yards.

Like many works of art, the totality of “American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (but not Including the Wounded, nor the Iraqis nor the Afghanis),” is revealed by standing back. But in Emily Prince’s installation each tiny piece of the mosaic is an artwork in itself — 5,158 portraits that chronicle the men and women of the American armed forces who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

The art installation at the Saatchi Gallery. (Photo credit: Peter Jeary / NBC News)

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Each portrait, on a piece of card four inches by three inches, has been rendered by Prince from photographs used in online obituaries. Where no portrait was available, a blank white card with a name is used instead. The portraits are pencil sketches, with the cards themselves color-coded to depict the racial diversity of the fallen: light brown, dark brown, yellow, off-white. Some of the cards contain brief biographical details of the subject, others just carry their name, hometown, age and the date they died.

When it was first assembled, the portraits were displayed in a grid indicating the hometown of each of the subjects, outlined by the shape of the United States. In its latest incarnation, at the Saatchi Gallery on London’s Kings Road, the artwork is in chronological order, with a ten-foot high column marking a week of conflict. The first few columns contain a few scattered portraits, but after three yards the columns get crowded, each containing up to 27 sketches. The first flood of drawings marks March 2003, the start of the Iraq invasion.

Two of the pencil portraits of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the left, Charles A. Hanson Jr., Panacea Florida, 22, Nov. 28 2004. On the right, Salamo J. Tuialuuluu, Pago Pago American Samoa, Dec. 4 2004. (Photo credit: Peter Jeary / NBC News)

Prince said the decision to display the portraits in chronological order makes the piece open to a wider interpretation than the “literal and didactic” depiction in a geographic shape. There are practical advantages, she adds: In the map-like installation the top-most portraits were 35 feet from the floor, making them impossible to view in detail. Now, she says, each portrait is elevated no more than ten feet.

Speaking from her home in San Francisco, Calif., Prince, 28, said that her initial intention had been to transform the abstract numbers of the rising death tolls into something more meaningful. She says she started to sketch the portraits in 2004 without knowing if they would ever leave her studio, working seven days a week for more than a year. At first she depicted soldiers killed in Iraq but then expanded her project to include those lost in the Afghan campaign. Although she says she has strong political views, she wants the work to be politically ambiguous: “So that people can have their own experience whatever their political view.”

Waldemar Januszczak, art critic at London’s  Sunday Times newspaper, described the installation as a “powerful … and grim memorial to wasted life.” …

More portraits of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in March 2008. (Photo credit: Peter Jeary / NBC News)

There is another poignant space in the current installation. Four feet of the third wall remains prepared but empty, an area that no doubt will contain more portraits.

“American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (but not Including the Wounded, nor the Iraqis nor the Afghanis)” [link added] is on display at London’s Saatchi Gallery until May 7, 2010.

Related report on this site

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Related project

Portrait of a Warrior Memorial Art Gallery

“As you step into the gallery, you are greeted by the sons and daughters of America. The fallen heroes hang as a memorial of their unselfish gift to us all as they gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Their eyes follow you as you stroll gazing at the paintings in which the artist has meticulously portrayed their lives. They were husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, and brave warriors who laid down their lives as they took their oath to defend the freedom we all know and love. Ken “The Dauber” Pridgeon has made it his mission to paint a portrait of these men and women we know as heroes. Each family of the fallen heroes is then given a print as his way of honoring their loved one. …”

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — January 28, 2009

Zhang Binyang / Xinhua — AP

Korea Headache Looms for Obama

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that North Korea could become one of President Obama’s most vexing foreign-policy challenges.