The Pentagon yesterday said two Schofield Barracks soldiers died in a vehicle accident Thursday in Baghdad.

The soldiers were identified as Pfc. David C. Armstrong, 21, of Zanesville, Ohio; and Pfc. Kenneth T. Butler, 21, of East Liverpool, Ohio. News outlets in Ohio said the pair were friends and started boot camp together.

Both were assigned to the 57th Military Police Company, 8th Military Police Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command with U.S. Army, Pacific. The incident is under investigation.

The Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder reported that the soldiers' Humvee jumped a curb and rolled over into a canal.

Steep-banked, narrow canal roads criss-cross sections of Iraq near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and pose a danger for relatively wide Humvees.

Scott Armstrong said his nephew played football and baseball in high school, practiced karate and loved to ride motorcycles and four-wheelers.

Military officials informed the family of David Armstrong's death Friday morning.

Scott Armstrong said his nephew joined the military because it promised the education he needed to go into law enforcement. He loved animals, including his dogs Bo, Razor and Gage, and wanted to be a law enforcement canine handler.

David Armstrong left for Iraq in June and was to return on leave this week. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Tasia Warne, his uncle said.

"David was a very special young man with a bright future ahead of him," Scott Armstrong said. "Everyone is devastated by his loss."

Butler was a 2004 graduate of East Liverpool High School, and was to meet his newborn son, Austin, when he returned on leave Sunday. The baby was born Jan. 23.

His wife, Ashley, remembered the first time the baby heard Butler's voice over the telephone, and she will never forget the last time she saw him, television station WTOV-9 reported.

"I was standing on my tiptoes, and he was hanging as far out as he could out of the window. He kissed me and told me he promised he'd come home," she said.

Seventeen Schofield Barracks soldiers have died in Iraq since September.