RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Members of the military are still dying in Iraq, even as the U.S. is drawing down its presence there. Twenty-four have been killed in Iraq so far this year. In Afghanistan, the U.S. death toll this year has topped 150.
One of those was Staff Sergeant Edward Mills, Jr. He was 29 years old and one of six soldiers who died last Thursday in Kandahar Province by an improvised explosive device.
Sergeant Mills was from New Castle, Pennsylvania, where his younger brother remembered him as a natural-born leader.
This is Morning Edition from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
