SOLDIER'S DEATH CONTINUES DEADLIEST YEAR FOR LOCALS
By Stephanie Heinatz
A 37-year-old soldier from Norfolk was killed in Iraq on Thursday, the Defense Department said Monday.
Sgt. William R. Howdeshell was in Saqlawiyah when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle.
Two other soldiers in Howdeshell's Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division squadron were also killed: Spc. Charles E. Bilbrey Jr., a 21-year-old from New York, and Spc. Jaime Rodriguez, a 19-year-old from California.
Howdeshell's family could not be reached for comment. He last lived in Norfolk in 2003.
As of Monday morning, according to Defense Department statistics, more than 3,630 military men and women have been killed in Iraq since the United States invaded in 2003. About 130 of those deaths came during the initial invasion and in the first month or so -- March 19 through April 30, 2003 -- of combat operations.
It appears that more troops with ties to Hampton Roads have been killed in Iraq this year than in any other year of the war. Howdeshell's death was the 12th.
No service members with ties to this region died in 2003. Ten were killed in 2004, nine in 2005 and eight in 2006.
July 6 was the deadliest day for local troops in Iraq. Three sailors from Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek were killed in Baghdad when a homemade bomb exploded near their Humvee. *
Jason Miyares — Virginia's 'new sheriff' — has had a busy first week. He's not done.