Student killed in Iraq

A roadside bomb explosion killed an Indiana University of Pennsylvania student who was serving in Iraq Wednesday. Eric W. Slebodnik, 21, of Greenfield Twp., was one of five soldiers killed from the Scranton-based 1st Battalion, 109th Mechanized Infantry. The five northeastern Pennsylvania residents were providing security for engineers building a railroad bridge near Ramadi, 75 miles west of Baghdad, when the bomb struck their M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. National guard officials told The Scranton Times that the vehicle was then hit by grenades and small arms fire before bursting into flames. Slebodnik majored in history with a political science minor and was in his junior year before he left for duty in December 2004. Survivors include his mother, father, a younger brother and many friends. While at IUP, Slebodnik was a student caller for Phonathon. Before being deployed, his co-workers threw him a party. "It was a little bit emotional because a lot of kids hated to see him go," Susan Stake, assistant director of annual giving at IUP, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Slebodnik's father, Joseph, who is a township supervisor, said it was his son's dream to work in military intelligence. "Eric was just a scholar," he told The Scranton Times. "He loved to read. He always loved the military and that was his dream to be in military intelligence. His whole life was built around it." Education was something Slebodnik always appreciated, even after he graduated from Revival Baptist Christian School in Scranton, said his father. "Eric was so smart and funny. He was so brave," said Annie Hobstetter (senior, journalism). "He truly believed in the cause for the war in Iraq, he was so patriotic." The military was something Slebodnik was ready for, and was proud to serve his duty earlier this year. Friends of Slebodnik recalled how patriotic he was, eager to fight for his country. "His willingness to leave school to go was unbelievable, " Hobstetter said. "He wasn't worried, had no fear, and he accepted what might have been his fate before he even left." In a letter to The New York Times on Sept. 22, 2003, Slebodnik wrote in response to a spread on whether or not the military was asking too much of its soldiers. "Where would we be as a civilization," he wrote,"if at one time or another we decided that dying on the hills of Gettysburg, the shores of Normandy or the mountains of Afghanistan was 'too much to ask?'" To date, Pennsylvania has lost 104 soldiers in the war on Iraq, making it the state with the third largest number of losses since the war started in March 2003, according to statements of National Guard officials.