Ron Paulsen killed by roadside bomb

Among the U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq this week was a 53-year-old Vancouver man who never expected to be called back to the Army Reserve after leaving active duty 13 years ago.

And as word of his death was confirmed Wednesday, Ronald Paulsen became the oldest of the 139 members of the armed forces with ties to Washington to die in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

Portland-area media said Paulsen was killed by a roadside bomb this week. He was among at least 11 Americans killed in Iraq since Tuesday and among at least 70 so far this month. October is on pace to be one of the deadliest months of the war so far for American forces.

KOIN/6, a Portland television station, interviewed Paulsen last year when he was called up after being out of the Army for 13 years.

Paulsen had served in the active Army for 14 years before leaving in 1992. He told the news station that he was given a choice: accept a lump sum payment of $30,000 and be finished with the military, or accept $7,000 a year but with one hitch.

"I went for the annual," Paulsen told KOIN last year after he was called up after 13 years, "but you had to stay in the inactive reserve to get it. Thirteen years later they're calling their cards."

Paulsen, who reportedly served with an Army Reserve civil affairs/psychological operations unit, said roadside bombs were his biggest concern, KOIN reported.

At Fort Lawton in Seattle, headquarters to Army Reserve units based in the Pacific Northwest, spokesmen said Paulsen did not appear on its rolls but appeared to be assigned to a Fort Bragg, N.C., unit.

The Columbian newspaper of Vancouver reported that Paulson's wife contacted his employer, Gunderson Inc., in Portland to say that Paulsen had been killed.

"It's really tragic. He was married not too long ago. People here were in his wedding," said Scott Eave, vice president of Gunderson, which builds rail cars and barges. "We've had crisis counselors brought in, and we will have them back tomorrow."

He said Paulsen, who was in inventory control, was on his second tour of Iraq,

"Ron was a very well-respected, very well-liked guy," Eave said. "He was one of those guys who is a part of this place."

Last month, 51-year-old Master Sgt. Robb Needham, also of Vancouver, was killed by gunfire while on patrol in Baghdad.

Needham, a grandfather whose reserve unit was based at Fort Lewis, had twice volunteered for deployment to Iraq to help train Iraqi police and special forces.

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer