
Sgt. Michael L. Tosto was a tank driver who didn’t die from combat, but from pneumonia that his mother said developed rapidly and killed him before he could be airlifted from Baghdad to a military hospital in Germany.
Tosto, who grew up in Chatham County, N.C., and was stationed in Germany, died June 17. Family members say his death came less than 48 hours after he started showing symptoms of pneumonia. He had been assigned to duty in Baghdad April 30.
He is survived by his wife, Stephanie, and 19-month-old son, Cameron.
The last time his mother, Janet Tosto of Atlantic, N.C., heard his voice was when he called on her May 5 birthday. “He loved driving tanks,” she said. “He didn’t like being away from his family now, and he just loved that little boy,...