Yevgeniy Ryndych dies of injuries from I.E.D.

A Brooklyn soldier on his second tour in Iraq died from a roadside bomb on the same day that his fiancee received his engagement ring in the mail, relatives said Thursday.

Sgt. Yevgeniy Ryndych, 24, died Dec. 6 in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, from injuries suffered when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol, the Pentagon said Thursday. Further details were not available Thursday night.

"He had proposed over the phone from Iraq within the past month, said Ivan Ryndych, 20, the soldier's brother, at the family's current home in Staten Island. "He bought an engagement ring over the Internet, and Kim received it the same day we found out he was dead."

Ryndych, a native of Ukraine, was about two months into his second Iraq tour. He was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division.

The Ryndych family moved from Kiev, Ukraine in 1998. Yevgeniy attended high school at Lafayette, though his brother said the precocious teen wasn't challenged by the curriculum.

"The high school in America was too easy," Ivan Ryndych said. "He was one of those people who not a lot of people liked him because he sat home the whole day and read books. He was like a genius kid."

Ryndych joined the Army, his brother said, because it had always been his ambition. Following his first tour, which ended in 2005, he was reassigned to a special forces unit, his brother said.

Ryndych volunteered for a second tour in Iraq because his old unit was once again being deployed. "His exact words to me were 'I don't want to leave them behind,'" Ivan said.

Until his brother's death, Ivan Ryndych had contemplated a career in the Army. "I changed my mind," he said. "I just don't want to put my parents through the same thing."

From Newsday