Fort Lewis soldier killed in Iraq, family says

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Fort Lewis, Wash.-based soldier from northwest Iowa has been killed in Iraq, his family said Monday.

Spc. Chad Groepper, 21, of Kingsley was shot Sunday morning in the Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, leaving behind a wife and 4-month-old daughter, the family said.

"He wasn't scared of anything," Dave Groepper, the soldier's father, told The Associated Press. "That's why he was infantry."

The father called Chad Groepper an "action figure" who always wanted to be in the front line. He had been serving in Iraq for nearly one year with an Army infantry unit and was scheduled to return to the United States as early as May.

Dave Groepper said the military told him his son was fatally shot in the head during combat. The Department of Defense had not announced Chad Groepper's death by late Monday.

Chad Groepper enlisted in the Army after graduating in 2004 from Kingsley-Pierson High School, his mother said.

Kingsley Mayor Wayne Plendl said his community of 1,200 people is in shock.

Plendl had known Groepper for his work on a local farm operation and many people had known him while he worked at a plumbing shop, the mayor said.

"We are pretty close and everybody knew this young man well," Plendl said. "It's such a tragic thing."