The 30-ton truck Solomon Sam, 31, was driving was hit in a suicide bomb attack by what the Army describes as a “vehicle born improvised explosive device.”
Although at least 24 soldiers from U.S.-affiliated islands in the Pacific have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003, Sam is the first from the Marshall Islands.
According to a fellow soldier in Iraq who saw a video of the attack, Sam was riding in the second vehicle in a large convoy on December 4.
Suddenly, a Toyota laden with explosives sped into the convoy, targeting Sam’s vehicle. The terrorists who attacked the convoy had waited for the first vehicle to pass and then drove into the second vehicle in line, the Iraq-based soldier said.
In addition to Sam, an American soldier in the same vehicle was killed, and several others were injured by the big blast, including eight Iraqi civilians, according to reports. The attack was reported to have taken place in Mozul.
Sam’s 30-ton vehicle reportedly was flipped 15 feet in the air by the force of the blast.
“Although it is difficult to identify the exact number, several hundred men and women from the Marshall Islands have served and are serving in the United States armed forces,” Aenet Rowa, a California-based Marshall Islander who manages Yokwe Online, the primary Internet site for Marshall Islanders, said Tuesday.
“A good number are stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan,” Rowa said, adding citizens of the Freely Associated States of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau, under special agreements with the United States, are eligible to serve in any of the U.S. armed forces.
U.S. military recruiters conduct regular recruiting drives, administering the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery examination twice annually in the Marshall Islands. Each year, 15-20 Marshall Islanders join the U.S. military, most going into the Army.
Sam, an Army sergeant, joined the U.S. armed forces in 2000, a year after graduating from Marshall Islands High School in Majuro.
His wife Bwilla and three children are in Hawaii, where Sam was based at Schofield in the 523rd Horizontal Construction Company, 84th ECB. Sam’s body was expected to be flown to Hawaii this week for services.
Rowa said Sam had only redeployed to Iraq last month. As with the majority of those currently serving in the U.S. Army, Sam and his company made multiple tours in Iraq.
Two Marshall Islanders have been seriously injured in fighting in Iraq.
Earlier this year, Army Pvt. Carl “Superman” Reiher lost part of one arm when the humvee he was traveling in came under heavy attack.
Army Staff Sgt. Paul Lejjena was the first Marshall Islander to be seriously injured in Iraq in 2005, when an improvised explosive device exploded near his unit while it was patrolling in Baghdad.
