Army Spc. Christopher S. Wright

Remember Our Heroes

Army Spc. Christopher S. Wright, 23, of Tollesboro, Ky.

Spc. Wright was assigned to 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.; died Aug. 19, 2010 in Pech, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.

A Kentucky soldier who grew up near Jeffersonville, Ind., has died in Afghanistan.

Specialist Christopher Shane Wright, 23, who later moved to Tollesboro, Ky., died Aug. 19 in Konar Province, Afghanistan, of after insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.

Wright, an automatic-weapon gunner assigned to Co. C, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment based at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., had enlisted in the Army in 2005, according to the military.

Wright died in a fire fight that “ultimately killed three Taliban who were reportedly responsible for the deaths of two other U.S. servicemen,” according to a statement from Col. Michael Kurilla, commander of the 75th regiment.

According to reports, Christopher Wright died on the operating table after being hit in the chest with shrapnel.

Wright is survived by his father, James Cochran and stepmother, Michele Cochran of Tollesboro, Ky., and his mother, Linda Dennis of Jeffersonville, Ind. Linda Dennis could not be reached for comment Monday.

“Everybody loved him — he always had a smile on his face,” said Michele Cochran, who, along with his father, own Tollesboro Supply and T-City Pizza. Tollesboro is near Maysville, Ky.

Lt. Col. Mike Foster, 1st Ranger Battalion commander, said his loss was “felt across the entire battalion, and our thoughts and prayers are with his entire family."

Wright’s grandmother, Verdena Polley of Tollesboro, said her grandson lived for a time near Jeffersonville, Ind., before moving to Tollesboro in 2002 and attending Lewis County High.

He enlisted before he graduated in 2005 and was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, Cochran said.

At Sacred Heart School in Jeffersonville, a K-8 school that Wright attended, school staffers were mourning his death Monday.

"Chris was a very caring person," said Jackie Shockley, who taught Wright. “He had a high moral sense and a sense of what was right and wrong."

Wright visited the school three years ago, when he was already in the army and on leave from Iraq, said Lynne Evanczyk, an eighth-grade teacher who also taught Wright in some of her classes 10 years ago.

"He told the kids how right it is to be responsible," she said.

Army Spc. Christopher S. Wright was killed in action on 8/19/10.