Fort Lewis Loses First Soldier In 2010

The family of a 22-year-old Fort Lewis soldier has reported him killed in Afghanistan.

Kyle Wright, whose hometown was Romeoville in the Chicago area, died Wednesday when his Stryker vehicle drove over an improvised bomb, his father Richard Wright told a Chicago Tribune reporter.

His rank was not given. Neither Fort Lewis officials nor the Department of Defense had released notice of any casualties from the local Army post. But Wright would have to be a member of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the only Stryker unit fighting in Afghanistan.

Wright is the 31st member of the brigade to die since deploying to southern Afghanistan last summer. He is the first reported killed this year.

Richard Wright told the Tribune that his son was fluent in Arabic and was in love with his girlfriend back home. Kyle Wright joined the Army after graduating high school, the Tribune said.

The father told the newspaper that the bomb went off under the driver's seat and that his son was dead by the time soldiers pulled him from the wreckage.