Tag Archives: 000th KIA

Army Specialist Donica, 22, from Spring, north of Houston, was killed by a sniper in Baghdad Dec. 28. He was the 3,000th U.S. serviceman to die during the war, and therefore the "grim milestone" of 2006 for much of the MSM. Wikipedia misspelled his name in their haste. His family, having none of it, made "a point of deflecting attention" from the fact, according to the March edition of Texas Monthly. Since then, they have put up an impressive Web site "dedicated to the memory of Dustin Donica, the Donica Family, and Dustin’s brothers in arms." The site includes photos and background Celtic music, as well as "American Soldier," a country ballad by Toby Keith. Texas Monthly eulogized Donica as one of more than 275 Texans killed in Iraq, "the highest number from any state other than California, and each one has left behind not just a family but a community."