Kraig Foyteck shot to death doing door-to-door searches

Relatives and friends are remembering a soldier and a loved one Tuesday night.

Kraig Foyteck was killed in Iraq, just weeks before he was supposed to come home.

CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports that people are coping with the loss tonight from Skokie to La Porte, Ind.

Connie Foyteck remembers her son, Sgt. Kraig Foyteck. "Kraig I love you and I miss you," she said.

The soldier was recently shot to death while doing door to door searches in Iraq.

"I just want to hold him one more time and they said, they may suggest that I don't but no matter what, I have to. I need to. I need to see him," Connie Foyteck said.

The 26-year-old's time in the Middle East was supposed to end this past August. His tour was extended. He was expected back in two weeks, for a Thanksgiving visit.

"I just want him to be home. This is the worst thing that could ever happen and they caught me so off guard," said Connie Foyteck.

The Niles West High School graduate was recently promoted to sergeant. He received a purple heart for his valor. The avid outdoorsman fractured his back during combat.

School book keeper Barbara Giannelli kept in touch with Foyteck after he graduated in 1998. She says Foyteck brought joy to everyone he met. He loved to play practical jokes.

"[He] taped my desk drawer shut. Just everything!" said Giannelli. "My kids are his age. I can't imagine life without him."

Foyteck had planned to travel and spend time with his family when his tour of duty was up. The soldier is survived by his mother, father, brother and grandparents.

From CBS 2

"Tough Scrapper" killed in Iraq

CHICAGO -- A Chicago-area soldier who was scheduled to come home next month was killed this past week while serving in Iraq.

NBC5's Alex Perez reported on Tuesday that 26-year-old Kraig Foytech graduated in 1998 from Niles West High School in Skokie.

"He felt that he was helping somebody over there, and he really sincerely felt that," said Luis Torres, Foytech's former teacher and swimming coach. "Tough scrapper -- tenacious. Just a tough kid."

Last year, he and his fellow soldiers in the Second Battalion, First Infantry Regiment, had been awarded Purple Hearts for their service during combat in Mosul. Foytech has also been promoted to sergeant a few months ago.

"He was just a good person," said Barbara Giannelli, a bookkeeper at Niles West High School. "A very good friend to his friends, and I'm going to miss him like crazy."

Giannelli said she considered Foytech one of her sons, and had mentioned coming home from Iraq in November. Foytech sent Giannelli a picture from Iraq, showing him in funny glasses, saying he would enjoy Halloween even though he would be in Iraq.

"He was going to try to be home for Thanksgiving," Giannelli said. "Now he will be home, just not quite the way we wanted it."

Funeral arrangements for Foytech were pending, Perez reported.

From NBC 5