This link is posted in memorial to LTC Kim Orlando.  Many knew him as he was at one time stationed at Ft Bragg.

 

Three Fort Campbell soldiers were killed Friday in Iraq during a firefight with gunmen guarding the headquarters of a Shiite cleric.  The soldiers were killed while attempting to negotiate with the armed men, who were gathered after the 9 p.m. curfew on a road near a mosque in the Shiite holy city Karbala in southern Iraq, according to a statement from Fort Campbell released Friday.

The Iraqis opened fire, killing the three soldiers and wounding seven others, Fort Campbell officials said. Two Iraqi policemen were also killed in the gun battle. Eight of the Iraqi gunmen died and up to 18 were wounded in the battle, which started about midnight Thursday and continued intermittently until late Friday morning.

The soldiers were members of the 101st Airborne Division. The deaths bring Fort Campbell's death toll in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to 26. Thirteen of those deaths were the result of enemy fire.

Killed in the gun battle were Lt. Col. Kim S. Orlando, 43, of Tennessee; Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Bellavia, 28, of Wakefield, Mass.; and Cpl. Sean R. Gilley, 24, of San Bernardino, Calif. The three were all members of the 716th Military Police Battalion.

Orlando was the commander of the battalion. He also served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Orlando is one of three Army lieutenant colonels killed in the war, the highest rank of any American military personnel killed, according to a list of American war dead compiled by Bloomberg News Service.

Orlando joined the Army in 1982 and in June 2002 came from Fort Bragg, where he was the executive officer of the 18th Airborne Military Police Command.  Orlando was a master parachutist, a formal designation the military gives for its most experienced paratroopers.  He was also a recipient of the Bronze Star, which is given for heroic or meritorious achievement or service in connection with military operations against an armed enemy or during military operations involving conflict with an opposing armed force.

Since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 198 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, according to the latest Defense Department figures. Of those, 20 have been from Fort Campbell.

This illustrates the dangers the military and its MPs increasingly face in Iraq.