A La Junta High School graduate was killed Thursday in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Friday.
Staff Sgt. Robert B. Cowdrey was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, out of Fort Bragg, N.C. He was a flight medic.
Cowdrey, 39, was known as “Brian” to his friends, according to Channel 11 in Colorado Springs. He is survived by his wife and three sons.
The Pentagon said he died from wounds suffered during combat operations but gave no details.
Cowdrey graduated from La Junta High School in 1990 and lived in Ohio before joining the Army in June 2003.
Cowdrey was deployed four times. He served in Iraq from July 2004 to July 2005, and in Afghanistan three times — from January 2007 to February 2008, from April 2009 to March 2010, and from August 2011 until his death.
