Charles R. Soltes Jr
Profile
Age: 36
From: Irvine, Calif.
Assigned to the 426th Civil Affairs Battalion, U.S. Army Reserve, Upland, Calif.
Incident: Army Maj. Charles R. Soltes Jr. was killed Oct. 13 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy vehicle in Mosul, Iraq. Also
Died: October 13, 2004
Calif. civil affairs officer killed in Iraq
Associated Press
IRVINE, Calif. — An officer with the Army Reserve’s 426th Civil Affairs Battalion died in Mosul, Iraq, when an explosive device struck his convoy as it returned from a local hospital, the Army said Monday.
Maj. Charles R. Soltes Jr., 36, of Irvine, Calif., and Lt. Col. Mark P. Phelan, 44, of Green Lane, Pa., died Oct. 13 in the blast, according to an Army statement. Five other soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Soltes, a Garden Grove optometrist in his civilian life, was working as a preventive health specialist with the battalion’s public health team. He was deployed in August with the Upland, Calif.-based battalion.
Soltes joined the Army Reserve in 1990 and served on active duty as an optometrist from July 1994 to September 1999. During that time, he served in Houston, South Korea and West Point, N.Y.
He was later assigned to the 7214th...