69 troops from state have died in Iraq war

As of last week, 69 military men and women with family roots in Washington state have died in the Iraq war. Almost all of them lost their lives in combat or accidents while fighting the insurgency that arose after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

More than half were young men in their 20s.

Pfc. Jason Hanson, a 21-year-old Marine from Forks, Clallam County, went to Iraq in March, one month after getting married. He died along with three other soldiers July 29 after an explosion caused the building they were in to collapse.

Sgt. Yadir Reynoso, a 27-year-old Marine from the farming community of Wapato, Yakima County, died Aug. 5, 2004, as he tried to pin down the enemy with rifle fire to give his squad a chance to withdraw from a dangerous position in the Najaf cemetery.

Five of the Washingtonians died before their 20th birthdays.

Army Pfc. Devon J. Gibbons, a 19-year-old from Port Orchard, was gravely injured by a 600-pound bomb that tore apart his Bradley fighting vehicle. Both legs were severed, and he suffered burns over 90 percent of his body, but Gibbons fought for life for more than 10 weeks before succumbing to pneumonia at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio on June 23.

The Washington death toll also includes three women.

Naval Reservist Regina Clark was a 43-year-old single mother from Centralia who died on a third tour of active duty since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A petty officer first class, Clark was killed June 23, 2005, by a suicide bomber who attacked a convoy returning from a Fallujah checkpoint, where Clark did searches of Muslim women.

Jaime Campbell, 25, a first lieutenant and helicopter pilot in the Alaska Army National Guard, was one of 12 people killed Jan. 7 in a helicopter crash in Iraq. She was 1998 Washington state rodeo queen and graduated from Ephrata High School and Washington State University.

Maj. Megan McClung, a 34-year-old Marine whose parents live in Coupeville, Island County, was a public-affairs officer who helped reporters who covered units fighting in the troubled Anbar province. She died Dec. 6 when her vehicle was hit with an improvised explosive device.

The oldest Washingtonians to die in the war were both from Vancouver. They were Army Master Sgt. Robb Needham, 51, twice a grandfather, who died Sept. 20 in Baghdad of small-arms fire and Army Staff Sgt. Ronald Paulsen, 53, a reservist called to active duty, who died Oct. 17 from a roadside bomb.

Editor's note: The soldiers and Marines counted in this story's death toll — and in the accompanying graphic — are part of a larger group of more than 150 soldiers, Marines and contractors with ties to Washington who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq since Sept. 11. The larger list includes some soldiers from Fort Lewis whose hometowns were in other states.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com.

The Associated Press contributed

to this story.