3 From Md. Die In Iraq Accident

Guardsmen Part Of Baltimore Unit

Three soldiers from a Baltimore-based Maryland National Guard unit were killed Friday in Iraq when an 18-wheeler struck the back of their armored vehicle, sparking a fire and detonating ammunition.

The Defense Department yesterday identified the three soldiers as Sgt. Brian R. Conner, 36, of Baltimore, Spec. Samuel M. Boswell, 20, of Fulton in Howard County, and Spec. Bernard L. Ceo, 23, of Baltimore. Baltimore officials said that Conner also had been a lieutenant with the Baltimore City Fire Department.

They were the first members of the Maryland National Guard killed overseas in the line of duty since World War II, said Maj. Charles S. Kohler, a spokesman for the Maryland National Guard. Guard officials and family members alike spoke of the severity of the loss.

The guardsmen were assigned to the 243rd Engineer Company, a 169-member unit that has been in the region since August to transport supplies, Kohler said. According to the Defense Department, the accident happened while the unit was conducting convoy operations in Taji, just north of Baghdad.

"This is the day we had been dreading," Kohler said. "We are a close-knit family, and we have suffered a great loss."

Kohler said that members of the Maryland National Guard have served in Iraq continuously since the beginning of the war. There are 607 members there now.

Maj. Gen. Bruce F. Tuxill, commander of the Maryland National Guard, released a letter he wrote to fellow soldiers about the accident.

"It is difficult to express the deep sadness that all of us in the Maryland National Guard family are feeling at this moment," he wrote. "Each one of these fine young men are true heroes in every sense of the word and represent the finest that the Maryland National Guard has to offer."

Boswell, who had recently turned 20, joined the Guard in 2003.

"I think everybody is in shock right now," a sister-in-law said last night.

Jackie Boswell said her brother-in-law had gone to Iraq willingly and voluntarily. She and her husband, Tony, drove him to the airport during Labor Day weekend on the last night he was home before going overseas, she said.

"He said he felt this is something he had to do and his country needs people to do it and he was going to do it," she said. "He felt it was his duty to do that."