Fallen troops remembered

September 10, 2011 Last Updated: September 10, 2011 11:55 AM Community

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks spurred the United States into two wars; one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

Those wars have claimed thousands of American lives, including 13 with ties to Butler County.

Here are those military personnel who died.

• Staff Sgt. Bryan Hoover, 29, of Lyndora died June 11, 2010, from a suicide bomber when he was with a provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan. He was with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Company C, 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry. He was from West Elizabeth, Allegheny County, but moved to Lyndora shortly before being sent to Afghanistan.• Pfc. Matthew Brown, 20, of Zelienople died May 11, 2008, from injuries he suffered in a noncombat related incident while on guard duty in Asadabad, Afghanistan. He was the son of James W. Brown and Sandy Evans. He was a 2006 Seneca Valley High School graduate. Brown was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, 18th Fires Brigade Airborne.

• Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, 24, son of Cheryl A. Harris of Cranberry Township, died Jan. 2, 2008, from electrocution at his barracks in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad. A reported faulty water pump in a shower caused his death. He was a Green Beret with Company D, 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group Airborne.• Capt. Todd Siebert, 34, died Feb. 16, 2007, after his armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Al Anbar Province. A North Allegheny High School graduate, he was with the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Marines. His parents, Thomas and Dorothy Siebert, live in Harmony, and his siblings live in Zelienople, Wexford and Harmony.• 2nd Lt. Chris Loudon, 23, who was a 2005 Slippery Rock University graduate, died on Oct. 17, 2006, when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in West Baghdad. His family is from Brockton, Pa.• Capt. Jason M. West, 28, who was a 2002 SRU graduate, died on July 24, 2006, when he was shot in Ar Ramadi. He was with the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division. He was from Robinson Township, Allegheny County. He was in ROTC at SRU.• Lt. Col. Michael McLaughlin, 44, died on Jan. 5, 2006, when a roadside bomb exploded in Ramadi while he was talking with Iraqi officials and police candidates at a police recruiting station. He was the first commissioned officer of the Pennsylvania National Guard to die in action since World War II. Lt. Col. McLaughlin was a member of the American Legion Post 117 in Butler and in 1987 he had been the executive officer of A Battery, 1st Battalion, 229th Field Artillery in Grove City. His father, Dan McLaughlin, is a Butler native.• Sgt. Shawn A. Graham, 34, of Brazoria, Texas, who was a Grove City High School graduate, died Sept. 25, 2005, in a Balad hospital where he was taken after the vehicle he was in accidentally rolled over in Baghdad. Graham was a member of the Army National Guard, 124th Cavalry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division based in Fort Worth, Texas.• Sgt. Carl J. Morgain, 40, of Penn Township, a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard Company A, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, died May 22, 2005. He was in the turret of a Humvee on security detail outside a police station when a suicide bomber pulled up and detonated an explosive-filled taxi. Morgain died in a hospital in Balad. He was a 1982 Knoch High School graduate.• Sgt. Michael A. Marzano, 28, of Phoenix, formerly of Butler County, died May 7, 2005, when a suicide bomber's vehicle exploded during combat in Hadithah. Marzano, who later lived in Sharon and Greenville in Mercer County, was in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment of the 4th Marine Division. He attended Karns City School District schools from the fifth through 10th grades and graduated from Sharon High School in 1995.• Marine Lance Cpl. Saeed Jafarkhani-Torshizi Jr., 24, of Slippery Rock died on Jan. 26, 2005, in a helicopter crash about 220 miles west of Baghdad. He was a member of the 1st Battalion, Charley Company, and was in the front lines in the attack in Fallujah. He attended Moniteau schools and high school and attended college in Texas.• Spc. Carl F. Curran II, 22, of Union City, Erie County, drowned on May 16, 2004, when a bomb exploded on a bridge and the Humvee he was in fell into a canal near Fallujah. He was with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard Battery C, 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery based in Oil City. He graduated from Karns City High School in 2000.• Sgt. Nicholas A. Tomko, 24, of McKees Rocks, formerly of Butler, died on Nov. 9, 2003, when his Humvee was hit by mortar fire and missiles south of Baghdad. He was a member of the Army Reserves 307th Military Police Company from New Kensington.