Ricky A. Kieffer
Profile
Age: 36
From: Ovid, Mich.
Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 182nd Field Artillery Regiment (Multiple Launch Rocket System), Michigan Army National Guard, Detroit
Incident: Army Staff Sgt. Ricky A. Kieffer was killed March 15 when enemy forces using small-arms fire attacked his unit in Baghdad.
Died: March 15, 2005
Michigan Guardsman killed in Iraq
Associated Press
OVID, Mich. — As this weekend’s two-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war nears, the Pentagon says an Army National Guard member from mid-Michigan has been killed in an ambush by insurgents in Baghdad.
Staff Sgt. Ricky A. Kieffer, 36, of Ovid died Tuesday, the department said on its Web site.
Kieffer was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 182nd Field Artillery Regiment (Multiple Rocket Launch System) based in Detroit.
“He’s a hometown hero, he gave his life for what he believed in,” Al Goodrich, an Ovid police officer and Kieffer’s friend, told WILX-TV in Lansing.
Kieffer, whose survivors include his wife and two children, had been in Iraq since Dec. 31, according to Lansing’s WLNS-TV.
“The whole town knew about it almost immediately,” said Bill Messeroll, who owns a hardware store in Ovid. “It’s sad when any soldier dies,...