US troops killed in Iraq and Kuwait

Army Pfc. David R. Jones

When David Jones finished playing in a late morning baseball game he didn't hang around long to chitchat with teammates. Instead, he left to participate in a 5K run later that afternoon with his younger brother, Alex. Jones was keeping a promise he had made to Alex.

Jason Brundage, Jones' high school baseball and basketball coach, recalled the story recently for the Times Union newspaper in Albany after learning that Jones, an Army prison guard, had died in Iraq.

"He was a good kid, a consummate team player who worked hard for everything he got," said Brundage, athletic director at St. Johnsville High School in upstate New York.

Jones, 21, of St. Johnsville, died of a gunshot wound Oct. 24 in Baghdad. The military says the shooting was not related to combat and is investigating.

Jones was a 2008 graduate of St. Johnsville High and attended Fulton-Montgomery Community College before joining the Army in 2009. He was assigned to Fort Hood.

Jones was to return home on leave this month and had planned to take his girlfriend, Brittany Winton, to a New York Giants game and ask her to marry him.

Survivors also include his parents, Theresa Ann Bennett and David Richard Jones.

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Army Pfc. Dylan T. Reid

Dylan Reid joined the Army on a whim in 2008, his sister told The Springfield News-Leader.

"That's the way things were with him," Erika Reid told the newspaper.

The 24-year-old from Springfield, Mo., was a 2005 graduate of Desert Technology High School in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. He loved cars and tinkering with machines, a habit that became part of his job in the Army, where his specialty was repairing tracked vehicles.

Reid became a father in September, when his daughter Avery Lynn was born in Minnesota.

"He couldn't wait to be a dad," Erika Reid told the newspaper. "It's all he ever talked about."

The military said Reid died Oct. 16 from a noncombat incident in Amarah, Iraq. He went to Iraq in March for his first deployment.

He was assigned to Fort Carson.

Survivors include his parents, Terry and Kelli Reid, and several siblings.