Roadside blast kills Meyers grad

WILKES-BARRE – A Meyers High School graduate died Tuesday from injuries he suffered in a roadside bomb blast while serving in Afghanistan, his mother, Mary Rambus said Thursday.

U.S. Army Sgt. Douglas John Bull, 29, died at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan a few hours after the vehicle he was riding in was struck by improvised explosive device in Chow Kay Valley, Afghanistan, according to Army records.

He’s the seventh soldier from Luzerne County to die in Iraq or Afghanistan since the war on terrorism began in 2001.

Bull, a member of the 1st Infantry Division stationed at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, was the only soldier to die in the bombing, Army records indicated.

“He was only over there for maybe two weeks. They were on a routine patrol,” his mother said, her voice cracking.

Enlisting after his high school graduation in 1997, he was a career military man with nine years in the Army.

This was his third time to serve overseas. His mother said he previously served in Iraq for one year and three years in Germany.

“Everybody loved him. He was well-known. He had a great personality,” she said of her oldest son, who she said enjoyed playing paintball and football with friends.

Bull has a younger brother, Jacob, and three younger step-siblings, including John, Erica and Amanda.

Bull will be laid to rest in a veterans cemetery near Fort Hood, his mother said. Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery is in Killeen.

His body is expected to be returned stateside today and to Texas by Tuesday, his mom said.

She expects a memorial service will be held locally within a couple of weeks, but the details are still pending.

Even though Bull was not a Pennsylvania National Guard member, those soldiers also felt the loss of a brother in arms, said Sgt.1st Class John Paul Karpovich of 109th Field Artillery of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

Many soldiers from the 109th knew Bull’s father, Chris Bull, who served with the battalion’s service battery.

The Pennsylvania National Guard followed Army guidelines when notifying Bull’s family locally, Karpovich said.

A chaplain and casualty notification officer were sent to Rambus’ home and the soldier’s father Chris Bull’s home in Wapwallopen, Karpovich said.

Bull leaves a wife and two children, 6-year-old daughter Arianna and 3-year old son Jaden.

Area men who died in the line of duty

• Sgt. Douglas John Bull, 29, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, is the seventh person from Luzerne County who was killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since the war began in 2001. A member of the 1st Infantry Division, he was stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. He died Tuesday when an improvised explosive device exploded near his vehicle.

• 1st Lt. Jeffrey F. DePrimo, 35, of Pittston, died May 20, 2008, while serving in Ghazni, Afghanistan, when his Humvee was struck by an improved explosive device. He served with the Pennsylvania National Guard unit out of West Pittston.

• Lt. Col. Richard J. Berrettini, 52, of Eldred, McKean County, a Pennsylvania Army National Guard officer who grew up in Luzerne County, died Jan. 11, 2008, in Texas from injuries suffered while serving in Afghanistan. Berrettini died nine days after the Humvee he was riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device in Khowst Province, Afghanistan. He died at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Berrettini was a native of Dupont.

• Petty Officer 1st Class Gary Rovinski, 44, was killed on June 5, 2006, in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, when his Humvee was struck by a roadside bomb. Rovinski, a Mountain Top native, was assigned to the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 25 in Fort McCoy, Wis.

• 1st Lt. Michael Cleary, a platoon leader in the 3rd Infantry Division, was killed on Dec. 20, 2005. He led his unit to a bomb factory near Samarra, Iraq, destroying it. The unit was returning from its mission when it was ambushed by insurgent forces.

• Sgt. 1st Class Paul Karpowich, 30, a Freeland native who lived in Bridgeport, Pa., was killed Dec. 21, 2004, when an explosion hit a dining hall tent at Forward Operating Base Marez near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. He was with the Rochester, N.Y.,-based 98th Division, a non-combat unit, which normally trains reservists and active-duty soldiers

• Sgt. Sherwood Baker, 30, of Plymouth was killed in an explosion while serving with the 103rd Armor Regiment of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in Iraq on April 26, 2004.