UPDATE: Troops Killed, Captured in Attack from Fort Drum





Binghamton's NBC Station
NewsChannel34.Com
May 15, 2007

If all three soldiers now missing were taken alive, it would be the
biggest single abduction of U.S. soldiers in Iraq since March 23, 2003On
Monday, the Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that it believes
the missing soldiers are in terrorist hands. Meanwhile, the Islamic
State of Iraq - an al-Qaida front group that has claimed to have
captured the soldiers - warned the U.S. to halt a search mounted by
about 4,000 troops.

Military officials have not released the names of the soldiers, but
confirmed they were assigned to Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry
Regiment, nicknamed the "Polar Bears," said Staff Sgt. Angela McKinzie,
a public affairs officer at the Multi-National Division headquarters in
Baghdad.

Fort Drum commanders referred all questions about Saturday's incident to
Army officials in Iraq.
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Families released the names of two of the dead on Monday - Sgt. 1st
Class James David Connell Jr., 40, of Lake City, Tenn., and Pfc. Daniel
Courneya, 19, Vermontville, Mich.

Connell's family learned of his death Saturday afternoon, they said.

Connell had just recovered from a shrapnel wound to the leg when he
visited his family on leave earlier this month.

The family is planning a memorial service at the Hatmaker Funeral Home
in Lake City. The date hasn't been set.

Connell will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, according to his
brother, Jeff Connell.

Meanwhile, students at Maple Valley High School in Michigan were putting
together a memorial for Courneya, who graduated in 2005 and was
well-known in the small community southwest of Lansing. He was a member
of the school's track and soccer teams and played clarinet in the band.

"It's a tribute of photos, posters, plaques and a picture of him in his
uniform," school special education and discipline secretary Kelly Zank
told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

His death was announced Monday over the school's public address system,
and a moment of silence was observed, she said.

Wendy Thompson, Courneya's mother, said his wife, Jennifer, called
family members Saturday night to tell them he had been killed. Thompson
said her husband, Army Spc. David Thompson, was returning from Iraq
after learning of his stepson's death.

, when Pvt. Jessica Lynch and six others were captured in an ambush near
Nasiriyah that also left 11 Americans dead.

God, when is this tragedy gonna end?
These are our family members,
even if they are not our immediate family....
and even if we never knew them...
They are still Family...

It's not gonna end until we are so depleted for an army at home that
people like "blackwater" guns for hire will have free rain in our
neighborhoods....the nightmare is close at hand

What do you mean Davinci?
What are blackwater guns?