Military deaths

The Defense Department last week identified the following American military personnel killed in Afghanistan, Bahrain and Iraq:

Charles P. Gaffney Jr., 42, of Phoenix; corporal, Army. Gaffney was killed Dec. 24 in a rocket attack on his combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province, southwest of Kabul. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Tony J. Gonzales, 20, of Newman, Calif.; specialist, Army. Gonzales was killed Dec. 28 when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee in northeastern Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division in Baumholder, Germany.

Robert L. Johnson, 21, of Central Point, Ore.; lance corporal, Marine Corps. Johnson died Dec. 20 in a nonhostile incident in Iraq’s Anbar province, west of Baghdad. He was assigned to the 5th Combat Logistics Battalion, 1st Combat Logistics Regiment, 1st Marine Logistics Group at Camp Pendleton.

Joshua D. Seitz, 19, of Sinking Spring, Pa.; master-at-arms seaman apprentice, Navy. Seitz was killed Dec. 25 when his military patrol boat struck a barge moored in Manama, Bahrain. As part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was assigned to the Naval Security Force, Naval Support Activity in Bahrain.

Benjamin B. Tollefson, 22, of Concord, Calif.; private, Army. Tollefson died Wednesday in Balad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire -- a military term that usually refers to a mortar or rocket attack -- in northwest Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood. He was assigned to the Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kan.

Sources: Department of Defense, Times staff reports and the Associated Press