2 Va. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

In a news release issued by the Army on Friday, Sgt. Kenith Casica of Virginia said he believed that "our patrols make a difference" in Iraq, keeping insurgents at bay.

Spec. Jared Kubasak, another Virginia soldier, was home to celebrate his birthday last month and headed back to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day, a neighbor said.

Both soldiers -- Casica, 32, and Kubasak, 25, -- were killed in action in the Baghdad area in the past five days, the Pentagon announced yesterday.

Casica died Saturday and Kubasak on Monday.

Casica, who listed Virginia Beach as his home town, and Kubasak, of Rocky Mount, were remembered yesterday as men who were loyal to family and friends, and to their mission.

Casica "was an ideal son. He loved everybody. He took on all his responsibilities. He put his family first," said his stepfather, Joseph J. Fauci, who spoke in a telephone interview from Virginia Beach. "He wanted to provide for his family the best way he figured he could."

Jared Kubasak was a teenager "with a big heart" when Patti Smith met him 10 years ago, after she became his neighbor in Rocky Mount, a town about 20 miles south of Roanoke.

Kubasak watched over her twin daughters, who were around his age, "like a big brother," she said.

"He just became a member of the family," Smith said. "My girls just took to him, and he took to them."

Casica, 32, was fatally shot Saturday while manning a traffic control point in the Yusufiyah district, southwest of Baghdad, the Defense Department said.

Casica was an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division that was deployed out of Fort Campbell, Ky.

Casica was quoted in an Army News Service account of a Dec. 2 patrol in Yusufiyah. The mission "was to see if we could apprehend insurgents who may have been in the area," he said. "We want [the citizens] to realize that we are here to help them."