Another Vermonter has been killed in Iraq. Sergeant Jamie Gray of East Montpelier died today when a roadside bomb exploded. Two other members of the Vermont National Guard were injured in the attack south of Baghdad.
Gray is the third Vermont National Guardsmen and the tenth serviceman with ties to Vermont to die in Iraq since the war began. An eleventh Vermonter died of natural causes in Kuwait. Gray was a member of the same unit that lost two soldiers two weeks ago: Kevin Sheehan of Milton and Alan Bean of Bridport were buried just last week. They were the first Vermont National Guard members killed by hostile fire since at least the Korean War. All belonged to the same unit, which was mobilized in January and went to Iraq in March.
Gray is the son of Montpelier public works director Stephen Gray. Martha Rainville, Vermont’s adjutant general, issued a statement Monday afternoon saying, “We are deeply saddened by the lost of Sergeant Gray and we ask that everyone keep the Gray family in their thoughts and prayers.”