Oregon contract worker killed in mess tent attack

PORTLAND – An Astoria man whose carpentry skills and passion for adventure led him to Iraq was among the contract workers killed in an explosion in a U.S. Army mess tent where 22 people died, officials and relatives said Wednesday.

Anthony “Tony” Stramiello Jr., 61, was among four Halliburton Co. contractors who died in the blast near Mosul, the company said.

In a statement, Halliburton described Stramiello as “very intelligent, detail-oriented and articulate. He had a passion for adventure.”

Stramiello went to Iraq in April and was a carpentry foreman on construction projects for the U.S. military, said his sister, Rochelle Stramiello-Johnson of Astoria.

Stramiello had been working on a new cafeteria, she said.

“He was a very fine carpenter. That’s what he went to Iraq to do,” the 60-year-old said of her brother, who over the past few years has been restoring a historic house in Astoria.

She said a desire to serve his country also led him to Iraq: “He always felt that he had wanted to go into the service, but the timing was always wrong for him.”

“It was a wonderful opportunity for him,” she said of his work in Iraq. “He was very happy.”

“We are just stunned,” she said of her brother’s death.

Stramiello had been scheduled to come home in February for his second leave and to return home for good in May, she said.

She said that her brother’s wife, Roberta, spoke to him every day.

“We were always in contact with him,” she said.

Stramiello assured his relatives that he was safe, his sister said, but they grew concerned after hearing about the blast near Mosul.

“We had been watching the news all day and knew he was in Mosul. So we were very uncomfortable,” the sister said.

She said their father lives in Arizona. Her brother has two sons, who both live in Bend, she said.

Stramiello was a longtime resident of Astoria.

He and his wife own several properties in the Astoria area, said Roy Latham, a close friend of Stramiello.

Latham’s wife, Teri Latham, said she was shocked when Stramiello announced he would be going to Iraq.

“We were all surprised when he went off, but we all felt that it was something he had to do,” Teri Latham said. “He’s a real good man and very caring.”

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that a suicide bomber was the likely cause of the deadliest single attack on American troops in Iraq.

The explosion ripped through a dining hall tent while troops and contractors were eating lunch at Forward Operating Base Marez.

The 22 dead included 13 U.S. service members, five U.S. civilians, three Iraqi National Guard members, and one “unidentified non-U.S. person,” the U.S. military command in Baghdad said Wednesday evening.

– Associated Press