Army
Spc. Eric R. Sieger

18, of Layton, Utah; assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st
Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died Feb. 1 at
Buritz, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his Bradley
Fighting Vehicle rolled
over.

Layton family mourns loss of son in
Iraq

By
Jennifer Dobner
The
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — A Layton man died from
injuries suffered after his Bradley armored
vehicle rolled into a ravine in Iraq, his family
said Feb. 5.

Eric R. Sieger, 18, died Feb. 1, according
to Army officers who came to the family home Feb.
2, mother Krista Sieger said.

The military confirmed the death in a news
release Feb. 5 and said the rollover at Buritz was
under investigation.

Officers said the rollover was an accident,
Krista Sieger said. Several others were in the
vehicle, but they did not suffer life-threatening
injuries, she said.

Sieger said she was told her son, who was
the driver, was alive when extricated from the
vehicle and died later at a hospital.

“There are conflicting stories. I don’t
even know which town in it happened in,” she said.
“I’ve asked to talk to somebody, the survivors, a
commander. It would be nice to know what happened,
what were his last hours. I don’t think a Bradley
just rolls over.”

Eric Sieger was one of 15 children and
among seven kids adopted by Krista and Wolfgang
Sieger. Eric joined the family at age
10.

“He was very outgoing, very friendly and
fantastic people skills, but on the inside he was
very insecure because he had suffered so much
abuse,” Krista Sieger said. “When he came to us,
he had been shuffled from place to place and was a
rather difficult child.”

Home-schooled by his mother, Eric Sieger
joined a Civil Air Patrol youth program as a
teenager, which fueled his interest in the
military. After completing his GED at age 17, he
enlisted in the Army in April 2005, Krista Sieger
said.

“It was a given he would join,” she said.
“He loved being a soldier, he wanted to make it
his career and planned to re-enlist.”

Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry
Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, at
Fort Hood, Texas, Eric Sieger was deployed to Iraq
in October. He was scheduled for leave in March,
and planned to come home to Layton to celebrate
his 19th birthday, his mother said.

She said last spoke to her son a week
before Feb. 5, promising to send him some family
pictures.

The sight of Army officers at her door Feb.
2 was “a nightmare,” Krista Sieger
said.

“We just got Eric to the point where we
could see that he could be successful. He was a
happy person and he was proud of what he was
doing,” she said. “For a boy with such a tragic
beginning in life, it’s such a tragic
ending.”

The Siegers have three other children
serving in the military — a son in the Air
National Guard and two daughters in the Army. One
daughter is in Iraq. The second is scheduled for
deployment later this month.

For the first time, Krista Sieger says, she
is worried about their safety.

“Even when Eric said he didn’t think he
would come back, I didn’t worry,” she said. “I had
so much confidence and faith. But you never really
know.”

Died:
February 01, 2007

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