
CASPER, Wyo. — Capt. Robert Lucero, the Wyoming National Guard’s first fatality in Iraq, loved his family, country and the outdoors, friends say.
Lucero was killed in Tikrit on Sept. 25 when he and another officer in the 4th Infantry Division Rear Area Operation Center, Capt. James Schmidt of Pinedale, Wyo., were searching for a water pump inside a Tikrit building, according to Guard spokeswoman Diedre Forster.
At around 7:25 p.m. local Iraq time, the men opened a box they had found in the building and it exploded, said Army spokeswoman Martha Rudd.
Lucero was killed and Schmidt suffered second degree burns from which he is expected to survive, Forster...