2 Ft. Lewis soldiers reported killed in Sunday ambush

(Editor's Note: This story has been changed since it was first published to correctly identify Spc. Luke S. Runyan's daughter, Brynn.)

Two Fort Lewis 4th Stryker Brigade soldiers were killed in Iraq in an ambush Sunday, the Defense Department said.

Spc. Luke S. Runyan, 21, of Spring Grove, Pa., was killed in Diyala province when his patrol was ambushed. Runyan's death was announced a day after the Pentagon identified another soldier who died in the same attack, Spc. Chad Groebber, 21, of Kingsley, Iowa.

Both men served with the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis. The 4,000-member brigade was deployed to Iraq in April several months earlier than expected as part of President Bush's escalation of U.S. forces in Iraq a year ago to combat increased insurgent violence.

Runyan's father, Marc, told the hometown York (Pa.) Dispatch that Runyan, Groepper and other soldiers were baited from their vehicles by shots fired above their heads, then ambushed. A third soldier was wounded.

Runyan's father learned of his son's death when his son's wife, Courtney, phoned to tell the family, the paper reported. Courtney and Luke Runyan have a 1-year-old daughter, Brynn.

"I literally dropped to my knees and started hyperventilating," Marc Runyan was quoted as saying.

Groepper, meanwhile, the only son of David and Darcy Groepper, also left behind a wife, Stephanie, and a 4-month- old daughter, Clarissa, born four weeks before he returned home on leave last year.

Their deaths bring to three the number of armed forces members from Washington hometowns or military bases who have been killed in Iraq this year, but to 259 those who have died there since the war began nearly five years ago.

According to the Dispatch, Runyan joined the Army in 2004 during his senior year of high school. Though several of his friends fell in combat, Runyan, who became a squad leader last fall, re-enlisted for three more years late last year.

"My heart sank (but) at the same time I was extremely proud of my son," Marc Runyan recalled of his initial reaction to his son's enlistment. "I knew on a daily basis his life was on the line. He had lost a lot of friends."

Runyan said his son "had no fear of combat, and I guess that was part of his training. He once told me you go out on a mission, and if you get hit, you get hit, if you don't, you don't. It's as simple as that. He did feel very strongly they were doing an excellent job freeing the Iraqi people from al-Qaida."

The soldier's father said his son is to be promoted posthumously to corporal and to receive a Bronze Star Medal for valor, according to the Dispatch. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.