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RELEASE NUMBER: 070825-01
DATE POSTED: AUGUST 25, 2007

PRESS RELEASE: Two Special Forces Soldiers killed in Iraq

U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, August 25, 2007) — Two Army Special Forces Soldiers died Aug. 23 from wounds sustained when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device near Al Aziziyah, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq.

Sgt. 1st Class Adrian M. Elizalde, 30, a Special Forces engineer sergeant, and Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Tully, 33, a Special Forces medical sergeant, assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Lewis, Wash., were fatally wounded while conducting a combat patrol.

Elizalde and Tully were deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as members of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula.

Elizalde, a native of Calif., volunteered for military service and entered the Army in May 1996 as an infantryman after graduating from High School in 1995. He served four years as an infantryman and scout with 3rd Bn., 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment (AIR), and another three years as a Long Range Surveillance Detachment team leader with Company D, 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. He later earned the coveted “Green Beret” after graduating from the Special Forces Qualification Course in 2005. Elizalde was assigned to 2nd Bn., 1st SFG(A) at Fort Lewis Wash., in Mar. 2006.

Elizalde is survived by his daughter, Sydney Grace of Klamath Falls, Ore.; and also by his parents, Jorge and Teresa Elizalde of Renton, Wash.; and sister Rachel Elizalde of Renton, Wash.

Tully, a native of Pa., volunteered for military service and entered the Marine Corps in Feb. 1993 after graduating from High School in 1992. He later transferred to the Army in 1997 and was assigned as an infantryman in Company E, 313th Military Intelligence Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. Tully then served as a LRSD assistant team leader in the same unit one year later before earning the coveted “Green Beret” after graduating from the Special Forces Qualification Course in 2006. Tully was assigned to 2nd Bn., 1st SFG(A) at Fort Lewis Wash., in Dec. 2006.

Tully is survived by his wife, Heather of Columbus, Ga., and his son, Slade of North Port, Fla. He is also survived by his father and step-mother, Jack and Marilyn Tully of Falls Creek, Pa.; mother Dolores Newman of Glendale, Ariz.; brother John Tully of Anchorage, Alaska (currently serving in Iraq); and his sister Heather A. Farkas of Northampton, Pa.

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