Two 20-year-old Oregon men killed in Iraq

Oregon soldier killed in Iraq

OTIS, Ore. — A soldier from this small coastal city was one of nine paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division killed this week by a suicide bomber in Iraq, his father said.

Mike Vaughan, 20, of Otis and the other soldiers were members of the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Bragg, N.C. It was the deadliest attack on the 82nd Airborne since 1969. Twenty other soldiers were injured in Monday’s attack in the small town of Sadah, U.S. officials said.

Vaughan, whose rank was not immediately available, is the third Lincoln County soldier to die in Iraq in the past six weeks. Lance Cpl. Nathanial Windsor, 20, of Newport died March 11 and Sgt. Nicholas Lightner, 29, of Toledo died March 21.

The soldier’s father, George Vaughan, told The Oregonian that his son had been home on leave in March.

“He had seen enough,” Vaughan said Tuesday. “He wanted to come home and go to school. But he was proud to be serving, and even though he was afraid to go back, he went because of his comrades and to finish off his commitment.”

Mike Vaughan signed up to join the Army before he graduated from Taft High School in Lincoln City, his father said. Two months after his 2004 graduation, he went to boot camp.

“I am a disabled vet from the first Gulf War, and I think he wanted to be involved,” George Vaughan said. The young soldier’s grandfather, Bill Vaughan, is a Korean War veteran.

While home last month, he spent time with his school friend, Jesse Branum-O’Dell.

“He was outgoing, a fun person to be around,” Branum-O’Dell said. “He did tell me some things that were going on with the war, and he definitely saw some things that other people would have never believed.

“I got the feeling something was bothering him, like he didn’t want to go back out, but he never came out and said that.”

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Ore. Marine killed in Iraq, family says

BURNS, Ore. — A Marine from Oregon has been killed by an improvised explosive device in Iraq, his family said Tuesday.

Lance Cpl. Dale Peterson, 20, was killed in action but the family was still learning details, said his older sister, Melissa Davies, from his mother’s home in Burns, where family members have gathered.

Peterson was with the 2nd Combat Engineer battalion of the 2nd Marine Division, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He joined the Marines after graduating from Redmond High School in 2005.

Davies, 23, who lives in Boise, Idaho, said her brother was the second-youngest of four siblings, the rest all sisters.

“Our world revolves around each other,” she said. “We talk to each other every day.”

She said Dale had been in Iraq for less than a month.

The Department of Defense had not confirmed Peterson’s death, citing a policy of allowing families to grieve privately for 24 hours before a public announcement.

“It’s just a tragedy,” said Gunnery Sgt. Brent Sowders of the Marine Corps Recruiting Office in Bend.

“He was a great friend, great brother in arms,” said Sowders, who talked to Peterson’s widow, “Reggie,” Tuesday morning.

“In my eyes, I just lost a brother,” Sowders said.

Peterson is the second Central Oregon Marine killed in action in less than a year. Lance Cpl. Randy Newman of Bend was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol last August.

Peterson was the 87th military service members from Oregon or with close ties to the state killed in the war in Iraq, according to a list compiled by Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s office.