A 23-year-old Illinois State University student was killed in a suicide attack while serving with the United States Army in Iraq.
Jeremy Ridlen, a sophomore, was a member of the Illinois National Guard’s 1544th Transportation Company headquartered in Paris, Illinois. He was killed on May 23rd when a suicide bomber drove a dump truck rigged with an improvised explosive device into an American military supply convoy traveling near Fallujah.
Ridlen was a 1998 graduate of Maroa-Forsyth High School. His twin brother Jason Ridlen, also an Illinois State student, is a member of the 1544th Transportation Company but was not traveling with the convoy at the time of the attack.