A Florida State University alumnus killed last month by a roadside bomb in Baghdad was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel, making Col. William W. Wood, 44, of Panama City, the highest-ranking American casualty of the Iraq conflict, according to the Pentagon.
Wood died Oct. 27 as he was directing security operations in response to the detonation of an improvised explosive device. During this response, a second bomb went off near his position.
Wood was a regular army soldier assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, Modesto, Calif. In Iraq since January, he was a lieutenant colonel at the time he was killed.
Born on Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas, where his father was stationed, Wood enrolled in ROTC as an FSU student. He graduated from FSU with a political science degree in 1984.
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