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IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 923-09
November 24, 2009
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Briand T. Williams, 25, of Sparks, Ga., died Nov. 22, in Numaniyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.
For more information the media may contact the Fort Benning public affairs office at (706) 545-3512; after hours, call (706) 545-2218.
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No success yet in finding local press information about Sgt. Williams and his family (assuming known family exists). Will post with details if/when information becomes available.
Online map searches come up with two hits for ‘Sparks GA’. Playing the demographic odds, he is probably from the one in south Georgia, on I-75 just north of the slightly larger town of Adel, and between Tifton and Valdosta. The other hit is for what looks more like a traffic intersection than an actual town (there is a Sparks Cemetery at the interesection). It is a bit east of the center of the state (northeast of Macon), in kaolinite/clay-mining country.
From WALB-TV (Albany, GA)*: Briand Williams, promoted to Staff Sergeant just two weeks prior to his death, entered the Army right after his graduation from Cook County (GA) High School.** He was on his fourth deployment.
*WALB-TV post, with short (0:42) video at upper right – short interview with his aunt.
**As much as I like Google Maps for its features and transportability of results, it fell short here. MapQuest came up with the same bizarre location as Google Maps for Sparks, GA, but it also came up with the more probable (and correct) Cook County location, as the other of the two hits in the results list. Using Google’s own Street View feature shows no buildings, residential or otherwise, at the site it identified as Sparks (just a rural intersection). Lesson learned, and word to the wise – at least one Georgia media outlet (Augusta TV, 0:25 video) clearly took the Google result and misreported the location of SSGT Williams’ home town.