Fort Lewis soldier killed by bomb in Afghanistan

[Dan]

This was just released by the THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Not mentioned are a couple others that were injured...keep SGT Wright's family and the other injured brothers of ours in your prayers.

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. -- An explosion in Afghanistan killed an Army special forces soldiers from central Indiana who was an NCAA cross country champion at Wabash College, his family said.

Sgt. Jeremy Wright, 31, was killed Sunday night during a patrol when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Kabul, said his stepfather, William Nickel. Two fellow soldiers were seriously wounded and taken to a military hospital in Germany.

Wright joined the Army in 2002 and was sent to Afghanistan about two months ago. He was a Green Beret stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash.

"He had gone into special forces right off the street," Nickel said. "The military had always intrigued him."

Wright, the Indiana 3,200-meter champion in 1992 at Southwestern High School in rural Shelby County, was a two-time All-American in cross country at Wabash, where he won seven Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference distance running championships.

He won the NCAA Division III Great Lakes regional title in 1993 and graduated with honors from the all-men's school in Crawfordsville in 1996 with a major in chemistry. He also was a member of the school's Athletics Hall of Fame.

"Jeremy's rare combination of intellect, courage, discipline and passion made him a naturally brilliant distance runner," Wabash spokesman Jim Amidon said Tuesday. "Those are the same qualities that made him a fine soldier, too, the kind of officer our country needs in the military."

Survivors include his mother, Jackie Nickel, and his father, Dale Wright.

Wright is at least the third person from Indiana to have died in Afghanistan or Pakistan since America's anti-terrorism operation began there in late 2001. Marine Sgt. Jeannette L. Winters, 25, of Gary, and Army Pfc. Ranger Matthew Commons, 21, who grew up in Indianapolis, were both killed in 2002.