10:09 PM PST on Thursday, January 29, 2004

By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff

BROWNSVILLE, Ore. – A soldier from the central Willamette Valley was killed Jan. 27 in Iraq by an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. Travis Moothart, 23, of Brownsville, was one of three soldiers killed in Khalidiyah, east of Ar Ramadi, according to the Department of Defense, which released information on the deaths on Thursday.

Travis Moothart. (Central Linn Photo)

Khalidiyah is west of Baghdad and is in the area known as the Sunni Triangle, where much of the resistance to the coalition is occurring.

The soldiers were part of Company B, 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division Mechanized out of Fort Riley, Kansas.

Originally from Corvallis, Moothart graduated from the Central Linn School District in 1998. His mother, Sue Moothart of Brownsville, has worked as a secretary for the district for nearly 15 years.

Smoke billows from the scene of an explosion near Khaldiyah, Iraq as U.S. troops secure the area on Jan. 27, 2004. A roadside bomb exploded next to a passing U.S. military convoy west of Baghdad Tuesday followed by a second bomb when reinforcements arrived, witnesses said. Three American soldiers and two Iraqi civilians were killed. (AP Photo)

She was at work at Central Linn Elementary when the news of her son's death reached the district.

"I was the one who took her home," said David Bolin, principal of Central Linn Elementary, who asked staff members to go home early.

"We're a very small community -- everyone knows Sue," he said, explaining that the district has just 600 students spread out over 13 grades.

The district began brainstorming ideas for a memorial, ranging from a tree, a plaque and a scholarship in his honor.

"In the past, when someone dies in the service, a scholarship is named after him," said Bolin, adding: "I can't remember the last time that happened."

A Congressional mandate says that the names of members of the armed forces who are killed in the service cannot be released to the public for 24 hours after the family is notified.

To date, 519 members of the armed forces have been killed in Operation Iraq Freedom. Fourteen of the casualties had Oregon ties. Another 2,546 have been wounded, according to the Department of Defense.

Khalidiyah attack

In addition to the three American dead, one U.S. soldier was injured, the U.S. military said.

Iraqi witnesses told the Associated Press that a roadside bomb exploded next to a Humvee in the convoy in the tense region west of the capital. As reinforcements arrived, another bomb went off, hitting a second military vehicle, they said.

Two Iraqi civilians also were killed in the ambush — including one who was shot in the stomach as he stood in his office nearby, hospital staff said.

As more American forces came to the scene, another bomb went off, setting fire to a second vehicle, he said.

The last serious attack in Khaldiyah took place Saturday when a car bomb killed three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint and injured six in addition to several Iraqi civilians. Two other American soldiers were killed in Fallujah the same day.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)