Soldier slain in ambush told family he wasn't coming back

Left: James Connell (top) and Daniel Courneya, two of the four slain soldiers in Saturday's ambush. A third of the slain, Chistopher Edward Murphy, has been identified by his family in news reports. The fourth is reported to have his remains unidentified as yet by the U.S. military.

Army Sgt. 1st Class James Connell Jr. knew he wasn't coming home from Iraq.

The night before he left his parents' home in Tennessee two weeks ago, he told one of his brothers just that. Then Connell, 40, asked his brother to take care of his kids.

Daniel Courneya, a private first class in the same unit, just wanted to come home. He told his mother in March things were getting worse in the area they patrolled. The 19-year-old missed his family and new wife.

He came home to Fort Drum in November to get married in a civil ceremony. He couldn't wait until this summer.

The two members of the 10th Mountain Division were among five soldiers four American and one Iraqi killed Saturday in an area south of Baghdad that the residents call the "Triangle of Death." Three other soldiers are missing; a terrorist group claims it took them hostage.

Read the rest at the Post Standard

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