Fiancee receives ring after GI's death

Fort Carson soldier proposed over phone, dreamed of enlisting

Staff And Wire Reports

Published December 9, 2006 at midnight

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A Fort Carson soldier's fiancee received a package in the mail with an engagement ring - just hours after learning that he had been killed in Iraq, his family said.

Sgt. Yevgeniy Ryndych, 24, died Wednesday in Ramadi, the Defense Department said.

"He had proposed over the phone from Iraq within the past month," said the soldier's brother, Ivan Ryndych. "He bought an engagement ring over the Internet."

Ryndych had dreamed of joining the military while growing up in the Ukraine.

"Since he was born, he wanted to go into the Army," Ivan Ryndych said.

Yevgeniy Ryndych, of Brooklyn, was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on patrol in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. He was a member of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson.

Yevgeniy Ryndych and his family emigrated from the Ukraine in 1998, moving to New York, where he attended Lafayette High School in Brooklyn.

"He was into history and math oriented," his brother said. "He played a lot of Army strategy games. He liked to read books and play video games."

The oldest of three children, Yevgeniy Ryndych enlisted in the Army on Oct. 6, 2001, and first went to Iraq in August 2004.

He returned home in July 2005, but was redeployed for a second tour of duty Oct. 10 of this year.

He was promoted to sergeant last month and was expected to come home on leave in May.

On Thursday, his mother, Stamislava Ryndych, sobbed as she talked about her fallen son.

"He was in the Army because he always wanted to be in the Army," she said. "He wanted to make a career in the Army."

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