Army Staff Sergeant Nicholas P. Ballard of El Paso, Texas and Sergeant Glenn M. Sewell of Live Oak, Texas were killed after their unit was hit by an I-E-D attack in eastern Iraq on Monday.
Twenty-six year old Nicholas Bellard leaves behind his 2-year-old daughter, Eva, and wife Victoria. Bellard’s aunt, Susan Ohlenforst of Rayne, Louisiana, says they meant the world to him. “He joined the military to put his wife through school,” said Ohlenforst. “She graduated last month with a teaching degree.”
Bellard, a Crowely, Louisiana native, joined the armed forces in 2003 and was first stationed in South Korea. This was his second tour in Iraq, a tour Ohlenforst says he volunteered for.
Glenn Sewell was 23-years-old and graduated from Judson High School where he played guitar and was on the academic decathlon team. Sewell joined the Army in 2007 and was serving on his second tour in Iraq.
No funeral services have been announced yet but both men will be honored in memorials in Iraq and at Fort Hood.
According to the Department of Defense, as of June 15, 6,061 American military personnel have died in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those, 540 were from Texas.