A Salem High School graduate died Saturday in Iraq when his U.S. Army combat engineer unit was attacked near Baghdad. Spc. Robert Oliver Unruh, 25, will receive the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star posthumously, his family said. He had been in Iraq less than a month when he was killed. Unruh was the 15th U.S. service member with ties to Western Virginia to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unruh, who graduated from Salem High School in 1998, was a fourth-generation soldier, his family told the Arizona Daily Star. His unit, the 44th Engineering Battalion, is based at Camp Howze, South Korea.
A Salem High School graduate died Saturday in Iraq when his U.S. Army combat engineer unit was attacked near Baghdad. Spc. Robert Oliver Unruh, 25, will receive the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star posthumously, his family said. He had been in Iraq less than a month when he was killed. Unruh was the 15th U.S. service member with ties to Western Virginia to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unruh, who graduated from Salem High School in 1998, was a fourth-generation soldier, his family told the Arizona Daily Star. His unit, the 44th Engineering Battalion, is based at Camp Howze, South Korea.
