Kokomo High School class of 2002 has lost another classmate in Iraq.
The family of Rickey Jones, 21, a sergeant with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, said they were notified Wednesday evening.
Jones was among four soldiers from the 101st, based in Fort Campbell, Ky., killed Wednesday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, the military command said.
Ronnie Jones, the soldier’s grandfather, said his grandson was a loving person and the pride of his family.
He said the family received few details of the soldier’s death.
“So far, we ain’t found out too much, period. All we know is that four of them were in a Humvee, and they got killed over there,” Jones said through tears.
“He was just one hell of a good soldier.”
The four soldiers assigned to the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team were killed on patrol Wednesday near Hawijah, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
Jones, a 2002 graduate of Kokomo High School, was serving his second tour in Iraq and recently had been promoted to sergeant. Former classmate Lance Cpl. James Swain died Nov. 15, 2004, in Fallujah.
Kokomo-Center School Corp. Superintendent Thomas Little Jr. said Jones will be honored in some way at Kokomo High School.
He said he did not know Jones personally, but had a daughter in his class.
“I can relate to this personally from the standpoint I have a daughter that age. To lose someone so young has got to hurt deeply as a parent, but to know he’s given his life to defend the freedoms of this country, you have to honor that as well from a parent’s standpoint.”
Jones is survived by his mother, Tenia Rogers, and grandparents Ronnie and Margaret Jones, all of Kokomo.
Including the four killed Wednesday, there have been 128 soldiers from Fort Campbell killed in the Iraq war.
Since February 2003, 54 Indiana military personnel have died in the Mideast war.
