LINCOLN, Ill.-
A 21-year-old soldier from this central Illinois community was killed while serving in Iraq, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.
Army Spc. Francis M. Trussel Jr. died Saturday in Tahrir from an explosive, the defense department said.
Trussel was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas.
The Danville native lived with his wife and two children in Lincoln, his aunt Janice Trussel told the Chicago Tribune.
“He was a scrapper, but he’d give you the shirt off his back,” Janice Trussel of Danville told the newspaper Tuesday. “He adored his boys.”
Trussel joined the Army in March 2005. He was deployed to Iraq in October of the next year.
Also Tuesday, the defense department announced the death of Marine Sgt. Nicholas R. Walsh, 26, who died Saturday during combat in Anbar province.
While the department listed Walsh’s hometown as Millstadt, Ill., his family told the Belleville News-Democrat he was from Colorado. Family members told the newspaper that Walsh’s wife, Julie, grew up in Millstadt and that he had lived there briefly before re-enlisting.
The couple have two sons, 4-year-old Triston and 7-month-old son Tanner.
His parents, two brothers and sister live in Fort Collins, Colo., along with his grandparents Taylor and Rosanne Hall. Another grandfather, Walter R. Walsh, lives in Birmingham, Ala.
Walsh was assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force in Camp Pendleton, Calif.
