JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A 26-year-old soldier from Jacksonville has died of injuries sustained in a non-combat incident in Abu Gharab, Iraq, the Department of Defense announced on Thursday.
Spc. Jeremiah C. Hughes died Wednesday in Balad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. His Stryker team was stationed in Hawaii.
The nature of the incident was not released.
As word of the tragic incident reached home, Hughes' family and friends were left remembering the 26-year-old soldier lost.
Hughes graduated from Sandalwood High School on the Southside, where on Thursday faculty members remembered him as a young man who was full of life.
"Just for a nice kid to just end up in a strange place and be killed, it's just really a shock. It's cliché but it really feels like it will happen to somebody you don't know," said physics teacher Jerry Langford. "When it hits home like that, it just makes you stop and really feel mortal."
Hughes graduated from Sandlewood in 1999, but even then the people said they knew he was headed for the armed services. They said he was a four-year member of the ROTC and took great pride in wearing that uniform even as he looked forward to wearing another.
"The fact is he made such a sacrifice for our nation and represents so many of the young men who have generously given their lives for our security," said Hughes' junior year English teacher, Linda Cugini.
She said it did not take her long to realize Hughes was a special student.
"It was wonderful to teach to him. You looked for him a lot because his eyes lit up as you were speaking and you could tell he was interested in intellectual things," Cugini said. "You have great respect for him. He carried out what he believed in, and he followed it through to the very end. You can only have the utmost respect for him for that."
Five other U.S. servicemen died Wednesday in fighting in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, bringing the number of American troops killed in Iraq to at least 4,031.
Maj. Mark Rosenburg, 32, a Miami Lakes soldier, was killed Tuesday by an improvised explosive device.
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Teachers Remember Soldier As Student Full Of Life
An Army soldier observes the landscape as he mans an M-240 machine gun in an UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flying over Baghdad.DOD Image
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