Army says Cass Lake soldier killed in Baghdad

By Associated Press

      MINNEAPOLIS - A 20-year-old soldier from Minnesota was killed in Iraq when his patrol was hit by a bomb, the Army said Monday.

      Spc. Dwayne James McFarlane Jr., of Cass Lake, was on foot near Baghdad on Sunday when the bomb went off, Pentagon spokesman Khalid Walls said. He is the 11th Minnesota soldier to die in military operations there.

      Walls didn't immediately have details of the attack.

      McFarlane was raised by his uncle, Don Bellanger, who reminisced Monday about a little boy who "would come to me when something was wrong."

      "I was worried that he suffered, but they said it was instantaneous," Bellanger said in a telephone interview. "I was glad."

      Bellanger said the funeral will be in Cass Lake, but he didn't know when. His nephew's body was expected to arrive at a military facility in Maryland on Tuesday.

      He said McFarlane joined the Army to get money for college. "He liked school," Bellanger said. He said after the military McFarlane wanted to move to California for college, maybe to learn to work on computers or design cars. "That's what he was striving for," Bellanger said.

      "He never did ... drugs, he was very respectful to all races. He never criticized anybody," Bellanger said.

      McFarlane graduated from Cass Lake-Bena High School in 2002, where he participated in track and was a member of the 2000-2001 basketball team that went to the state tournament. The school observed a moment of silence Monday for McFarlane and lowered flags to half-staff.

      Sue Chase, an English teacher at the school, recalled McFarlane's leadership abilities and described McFarlane as a boy with a "little bit of mischief in him."

      Jennifer Voge, a guidance counselor at the school, described McFarlane as a well-liked, humorous student who had it together.

      "Dwayne was somebody who always just did what he was supposed to do," she said.

      She didn't specifically recall his decision to enter the Army, but did say, "He wanted to serve his country."

      Bellanger said McFarlane was home on leave in August and September, after seeing some of his friends get shot while in a Humvee. McFarlane chose to return to the war zone, despite the dangers.

      "He knew, he understood the dangers," Bellanger told the Pioneer of Bemidji. "He was aware of them, but he was always on the up beat. He'd say, 'Don't worry about me.'"