Army Pfc. Brian L. Holden

Remember Our Heroes

Army Pfc. Brian L. Holden, 20, of Claremont, N.C.

Pfc. Holden was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.; died April 9, 2007 in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Also killed were Spc. Ismael G. Solorio and Pvt. Brett A. Walton.

Outdoorsman, loving husband, new father lost
Gazette, The (Colorado Springs),
by CARY LEIDER VOGRIN

One was a sergeant who had survived a sniper attack and a roadside bomb in two combat tours in Iraq.

Another was a private was counting down the days to May, when he and his wife would go on the honeymoon trip they never had the chance to take.

The third was a Montana ranchhand who had bought a ranch but would never get to settle on it.

The three Fort Carson soldiers with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team died this week in combat in Iraq. It was unclear Thursday if they were killed in the same attack.

Sgt. Ismael Solorio, 21, of San Luis, Ariz., died Monday during his third Iraq deployment, said his older sister, Elvira Solorio. She did not know how he died, and the Department of Defense had not released details Thursday.

Pfc. Brian Lee Holden, 20, of Claremont, N.C., a gunner with the brigade's 17th Field Artillery Regiment, was killed by a roadside bomb, his family said.

Pfc. Kyle G. Bohrnsen, 22, of Philipsburg, Mont., of the brigade's 12th Infantry Regiment, died Tuesday after being wounded by a roadside bomb, the Pentagon reported.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do," Brian Holden's widow, Amanda Holden, 19, said Thursday from their North Carolina home. "It's really hard to be so young and have to go through this."

The couple had been married 13 months and had been saving money to buy a house, she said.

"He told me the other day he was ready to come home, buy a house, settle down and have kids," she said.

Planning honeymoon

Gene Delozier had been looking at hundreds of pictures of his stepson, Brian Lee Holden, who was killed Monday by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

"In every picture, he was smiling. Brian was so cheerful all the time," Delozier said.

"Brian was in our prayers a lot. We would pray for him every time they went out on a mission," he said.

The 20-year-old from Claremont, N.C., had been married for 13 months. Delozier said the couple was planning a trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C. for a honeymoon they never took after they got married in March 2006.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do," Holden's widow, Amanda Holden, 19, told The Associated Press Thursday from their North Carolina home. "It's really hard to be so young and have to go through this."

Delozier said the couple spent plenty of time at Fort Carson together, where they both enjoyed the outdoors.

Born in Jacksonville, Fla., and raised in North Carolina, Holden graduated from Newton-Conover High School in 2005. He enlisted in the Army immediately after graduation.

Holden is survived by his parents, Bill Holden, of Cornelius, N.C., and Leasa Delozier, of Claremont, N.C.; stepparents Gene Delozier, of Claremont, and Helen Holden, of Cornelius; a brother, Billy Holden, of Mooresville, N.C.; paternal grandmother, Lilly Holden, of Jacksonville, Fla.; and maternal grandfather, Darrell Shrewsberry, of Conover, N.C.

Army Pfc. Brian L. Holden was killed in action on 4/9/07.