Bryan Chism reported killed in Iraq

A soldier from Prairieville who loved the outdoors and his motorcycle was killed Saturday in Iraq, his family said.

Bryan Chism, 22, who “liked anybody and everybody,” was one of five U.S. soldiers killed in Karbala, Iraq, his mother, Elizabeth Chism, said as friends gathered at her home tonight in Prairieville.

They had gathered to mourn the man family friend Patsy Meades described as a tall, lanky “regular country kid.”

Family was en route, converging on Prairieville from Texas, Oklahoma and Iraq, Meades said. Chism’s sister, Julie Andexler, had the longest trip planned: from Baghdad to the States.

Andexler, an Army paralegal with a medic unit, has also been serving in Iraq and will be heading home soon to be with family, Elizabeth Chism said.

As family and friends watched Bryan Chism’s Army training videos this evening, Elizabeth Chism reminisced about her son.

He drove her crazy at times, she said, but that’s what sons sometimes do.

She said she kept him in line – once, getting him in trouble with a sergeant for what he had posted on his Web site page on the online community MySpace.com – because that’s what moms do.

An LSU fan and Boy Scout, Bryan Chism graduated from St. Amant High School and was into sky diving and rock climbing.

He accumulated 21 hours in college and then joined the Army, said Elizabeth Chism, an East Ascension High teacher.

His friends inundated the Chism home this evening, Meades said.

“They’re coming in and out like waves,” Meades said.

An artillery specialist in the Army on his first tour of duty in Iraq, Bryan Chism was one of five soldiers who died when a militia group attacked provincial headquarters in Karbala with grenades, small arms and indirect fire, The Associated Press reported.

The soldiers died during an attack on a meeting that was planned to ensure the security of Shiite pilgrims to the city to mark a 10-day festival, The AP reported.

Chism, who had been in the service since June 2005, was due to come home for two weeks of rest and relaxation in February, his mother said.

They spoke every Sunday, usually late at night.

“I’m gonna miss him,” Elizabeth Chism said. “He was a good kid.”

From WBRZ 2