Local man killed in Iraq (Evans City, Pennsylvania)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/news/s_164641.html



It's the knock on the door that any family of a soldier dreads.
Jack Tomko got that visit from the military at his Butler County home at 11 p.m. Sunday. His youngest son, Nicholas, a military police sergeant serving in Iraq, died in an attack that day.

"He was a great kid, brave as hell. He didn't take no chances, he knew his stuff," said Tomko, 58, of Evans City.

Nicholas Tomko, 24, was a member of the New Kensington-based 307th Military Police Company of the Army Reserve. His company, traveling in Baghdad in a convoy, was attacked by mortar and small-arms fire. Tomko was a door gunner on a Humvee.

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Tomko, an Evans City native who was living in McKees Rocks, was scheduled to come home three days before Christmas and celebrate the third birthday of his son, Ethan. He also leaves behind his fiancee, Jess Blake.

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Tomko, who was working as an armored car driver near Pittsburgh, joined the Army Reserve three years ago hoping to get a head start on a career in law enforcement, his father said. He was stationed in Bosnia for six months and had two months off before his unit was reactivated in February.