Specialist David Hickman died November 14 in Baghdad after being wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED), the signature weapon of the war, according to a Pentagon statement issued several days after his death.
"That's the last person identified," a Pentagon spokeswoman said, AFP reports.
Hickman was a member of the North Carolina-based 82nd Airborne Division. His unit -- the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team -- recently returned to Fort Bragg from Iraq.
The Washington Post reported that Hickman, who was stationed at a small operating base in Baghdad known as a joint security station, called home the day before his armored vehicle was struck by the roadside bomb explosion that killed him.
He told his family he was excited to be coming home before Christmas, friends told the Post.
"Thank God if David is the last one to die, because that means nobody else will have to go through this," Logan Trainum, a close friend, told the Post.
"But it's crazy that he died. No matter your position on this war -- if you're for or against it -- I think everybody thinks we shouldn't have been over there anymore."
The last US troops left Iraq on Sunday, nearly nine years after a US invasion that has also resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis. (SYS)
Editor: Ade P Marboen
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
