(Pocahontas)– A northwest Iowa National Guard soldier, who was scheduled to come home within the next month, has been killed in Iraq.
National Guard officials say Specialist Gregory L. Tull of Pochahontas was the gunner of an armored humvee when it was struck by the explosion of a roadside bomb.
The 20-year-old Tull died around 2:00 p.m. Iraq time Friday.
Guard spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Greg Hapgood says the attach occurred about 40 to 50 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Tull was assigned to the First Battalion, 194th Field Artillery Unit based in Storm Lake.
He enlisted in the National Guard in April 2002, before graduating from Pocahontas High School in 2003.
He attended South Dakota State University before volunteering to go to Iraq in November 2004. Tull arrived in Iraq early this year.
Hapgood says Tull was a confident, bright young man, who wanted to be where the action was.
Tull is survived by his mother and father, Eileen and Gary Tull, and brother, Bryan, all of Pochahontas.
He also has grandparents in Garner and Humboldt.
(Story from the Associated Press).
