RENO, Nev. " Army officials have notified the parents of former Gardnerville resident Anthony Schober that he was among soldiers killed Saturday in an attack on his unit's outpost south of Baghdad in which three other soldiers are believed to have been captured.
"We don't want to talk about it right now," his grandfather, Robert Asper, said Thursday night from Rohnert Park, Calif. "We just found out about it. As far as we know, it's true."
Three other members of Company D, 4th Battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the "Polar Bears," also died in the Saturday ambush and were identified immediately. Relatives say Schober was identified by DNA testing. He is survived by his mother Roberta and adoptive father Edward of Carson City and two sisters.
Attempts to reach them on Friday were not immediately successful.
"This is a tragedy. Sgt. Schober served our country with honor and the news of his death saddens us all in Nevada and across the nation," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. "My thoughts and prayers go out to Sgt. Schober's family and friends as they mourn this heartbreaking loss."
Schober, 23, was on his fourth tour in Iraq. He attended Douglas High School from 1999 to 2001.
Three other members of the unit, part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, were captured and reportedly are being held by al-Qaida terrorists.
Schober, who was on his third tour of duty in Iraq, was leading a squad trying to prevent insurgents from laying roadside bombs at night when the ambush occurred along a palm-lined rural road near Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad.
Schober's squad was attacked while at an observation post composed of two Humvees surrounded by concertina wire that had been breached. They were watching for insurgents placing roadside bombs about 800 yards from their patrol base in a rural villa.
