Reports: Soldier killed in Afghanistan grew up in North Idaho

One of eight soldiers killed Saturday when enemy forces overran their outpost in Afghanistan spent part of his youth in the Bonners Ferry area, according to news reports. Army Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk, 30, of Portland, Maine, moved to Idaho when he was about 5 and was home-schooled there, according to the Maine newspaper. His mother, Bernadette Kirk Bonner, lives in Bonners Ferry, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram said. In his late teens, Kirk returned to Maine and earned a general equivalence degree from a high school there. He worked in the construction industry with his father and took construction classes at a community college in Maine. In 2005, he enlisted in the Army and served two tours, the first lasting 15 months and the second beginning in May, the newspaper reported Wednesday in its Web edition. He was an Army scout. Kirk and his wife lived in Colorado Springs, Colo., and he was stationed at nearby Fort Carson. As many as 50 family members watched as his flag-draped casket was unloaded from an airplane Tuesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the newspaper said. A family member told the newspaper there would be a memorial service at Fort Carson in Colorado, and that Kirk will be buried in New Hampshire. His wife, Megan, is originally from Manchester. He also is survived by a 3-year-old daughter.