Fallen soldier praised as peacemaker

Associated Press

SUNBURY, Ohio — A Fort Carson, Colo.-bound soldier killed in Iraq was praised at his funeral as a peacemaker and a soldier.

Spc. Anthony D. Kinslow, 21, died June 13 when his Humvee came under attack in Ramadi, the volatile town 70 miles west of Baghdad.

“It wasn’t he who was shooting when something exploded to kill him,” the Rev. James Walter said Thursday at Kinslow’s funeral.

Kinslow was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The 2nd Brigade had been based in South Korea but will move to Fort Carson after its tour in Iraq.

The brigade has lost at least 68 soldiers since its deployment to Iraq from Korea last summer.

Brig. Gen. Albert Bryan described him as “first and foremost a soldier.”

“Spc. Kinslow, in choosing to be a soldier, chose a life of service over personal entitlement ... to provide for the greater community rather than to seek out those things that lead to personal gain,” Bryan said.

Teachers at Big Walnut High School, where Kinslow graduated in 2002, remembered him as polite and quiet.

Kinslow is survived by his parents, three sisters and two brothers.