Kokomo soldier, 20, killed by bomb after just 1 week in Iraq

KOKOMO – A central Indiana soldier who had only been in Iraq for about a week died during an attack while on patrol in Baghdad, military and family members said.\nTwenty-year-old Army Pfc. David Neil Simmons of Kokomo was one of two soldiers killed Sunday when their military vehicle was attacked by an improvised bomb and small-arms fire, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. \nSimmons first enlisted in the Indiana National Guard before graduating from Northwestern High School in 2005, then decided after basic training to join the Army, family members said. He had been in Kuwait for three weeks before being sent to Baghdad on April 1.\nHis mother, Teri Tenbrook, said she had last talked to her son Saturday.\n“He called about 10 a.m. and said he wouldn’t be able to call for a couple of days because they were going out on patrol,” \nTenbrook said. “That was it.”\nDavid Simmons had been working on a care package to send to his son before being notified of his death.\n“All I’m comfortable with is that he enjoyed doing what he \ndid and he wouldn’t want to do anything else,” the elder Simmons said. “Freedom is very expensive. You don’t know how much until something like this happens.”\nSimmons, who was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division based in Fort Benning, Ga., is the third Indiana soldier to die in Iraq in the past two weeks. His death raises to 75 the number of people from Indiana to have died after being sent to the Mideast since the buildup for the invasion of Iraq began in 2003.