ST. LOUIS – In correspondence from Iraq's fortified Green Zone, Col. Stephen Scott had always insisted to relatives that he was safe. But recently, family members noticed that a surge in violence had him worried.
“You could tell in his voice that he was telling us he was safe, but he wasn't really believing it in the last three weeks,” said his sister, Kathleen King.
Scott, 54, who is survived by two adult children who live in the St. Louis area, died Sunday during a mortar attack while he was exercising on a treadmill inside Baghdad's Green Zone. As only the ninth soldier of his rank to have been killed in the Iraq war, he is one of the conflict's highest-ranking casualties.
Scott, an avid jogger, was killed as he exercised on a treadmill at a U.S. military facility, King said.
The war has claimed the lives of at least 4,031 U.S. military personnel. Two colonels were among 12 people killed in 2007 when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Baghdad.
Colonel appears to be the highest rank of any U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war.
An Associated Press database of U.S. military deaths in Iraq, which includes casualties awarded the rank of colonel posthumously, shows that at least eight other Army or Army Reserve colonels have died.
Scott had spent two years working at the Pentagon, but went to Iraq in December to help train and equip the Iraqi army. He had already served 18 months in Iraq, and his recent deployment was set to end in June, King said.
Scott told reporters in February that he was pleased with the pace of development for the Iraqi army, according to American Forces Press Service.
Also killed in the attack was Maj. Stuart Wolfer, 36, of Coral Springs, Fla. The father of three was assigned to the 11th Battalion, 104th Division, Boise, Idaho. Wolfer's funeral was held yesterday at Beth El Jacob Synagogue in Des Moines, Iowa.
Scott's funeral was to be held at First Baptist Church in Harvester, Mo.
