U.S soldier, Staff Sergeant Eric Trueblood

Staff-Sgt. Eric Trueblood

U.S Army Staff Sergeant Eric S. Trueblood, aged 27, from Alameda, California, was killed on 10th March when his unit was hit by the blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kandahar.

He was assigned to the 391st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 16th Sustainment Brigade, Spinelli Barracks, Mannheim, Germany.

Staff Sgt. Trueblood downplayed the dangers of being an Army explosives technician, telling his parents that he had received the best training in the world after graduating at the top of his class at a military bomb-disposal school.

Perhaps the comments he wrote on his MySpace page sum Eric Trueblood up. He wrote, "My job is pretty cool. I can't see why they would actually pay someone to play with explosives. It should probably be the other way around, but I've never argued with a paycheck."