Families of five Benning soldiers notified of deaths

<p>Families of five Fort Benning soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, Iraq, have been notified _ more than a week after family members were first told their relatives may be dead.</p><p>The Oct. 15 blast caused the largest loss of life in one day involving Fort Benning troops since Oct. 3, 1993, when six soldiers were killed in Mogadishu, Somalia.</p><p>Army Spc. Tommy Byrd, 21 and Spc. Jeffrey Corbin, 30, were among the members of the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment killed in the explosion, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported.</p><p>The troops were riding in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle in a village on the outskirts of Ramadi when a roadside bomb exploded, according to the Department of Defense.</p><p>"He was a brave man and he was full of joy and love," Mykel Byrd, Tommy Byrd's wife, said of her husband, a Bradley driver and native of Tucson, Ariz. "He did what he did because he wanted to protect everyone. He had a huge heart of gold."</p><p>A memorial service for the five soldiers is expected later this week at Fort Benning.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cd99bc)</p>