BISMARCK – An Army soldier from New Salem has been killed in Iraq, almost exactly a year after the last North Dakota soldier to die in the Middle East.

Spc. Dennis Ferderer Jr., 20, died in Ad Duluiyah, Iraq, on Wednesday, when a hand grenade was thrown at his Humvee, the Department of Defense said. Ad Duluiyah is about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Ferderer was serving with the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, which is based in Fort Benning, Ga.

He was the son of Dennis Sr. and Claudina Ferderer, and had one brother. Claudina Ferderer declined to talk about her son Thursday, saying the family planned a news conference at their farm today.

“You kind of knew in the back of your mind that (New Salem) wouldn’t be lucky forever ...You knew that sooner or later that the luck was going to run out, that they’re not all going to come home,” Renee Doll, a study aide at New Salem High School when Ferderer was a student there, told The Bismarck Tribune.

His service to his country won't soon be forgotten.

Full list of ND casualties from the Iraq war here.

Update:

Statement from the family:

NEW SALEM, N.D. (AP) - Dennis Ferderer Jr., known as "DJ," grew up on a dairy farm but dreamed of being a soldier, say the parents of the 20-year-old Army specialist killed this week in Iraq.

Ferderer died Wednesday in Ad Duluiyah, Iraq, when a hand grenade was thrown at his Humvee, the Defense Department said. Ad Duluiyah is about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

"We're proud of him, but it hurts," Ferderer's mother, Claudina, said Friday. She and her husband, Dennis Sr., spoke with reporters at their home, remembering their son and his devotion to the Army. . . .

His parents last saw him in September, when he came home for seven days on leave. Claudina said he did not talk much about the war in Iraq.

"He didn't want to worry Mom," she said.

He said if he did kill people in Iraq, he was not proud of it, it was something he was taught to do. And he talked about his fellow soldiers and how they looked out for each other.

"He said he couldn't wait to get back to be with 'my brothers,'" his mother said.

He was not afraid to give his life. He told Claudina, "When my time is to come, I am so ready."

[...]

Claudina said that before he went there, she had no opinion on the war.

"He convinced me we were there for a reason," she said.

Claudina said she and her husband supported their son's decision to make the Army his career instead of the farm.

"Life is too short not to lead the life you want," she said.

Spc. Ferderer died fighting for a cause he believed in. He is a hero, and we should stay the course and finish our mission in Iraq so that his death is not in vain.