A Schofield Barracks soldier with the Stryker brigade was killed in Iraq this week, the Pentagon reported yesterday.

Spc. Gregory B. Rundell, 21, of Ramsey, Minn., died Wednesday in Taji of wounds suffered from small-arms fire, officials said. His family said he was manning a guard tower when he was hit by sniper fire.

Rundell, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds," 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, was the sixth Stryker brigade soldier killed since the unit deployed in November and December.

Rundell's family gathered at the National Guard armory in St. Paul last night to talk about the soldier, who wanted to be a police officer and believed that Iraq combat experience would help him with that goal.

He had written a letter to his mother, Joanne Richardson, saying he was ready to sacrifice his life in the line of duty, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

"I don't want tears of loss, but tears of happiness for what I was able to do," Richardson said her son had written.

More than a dozen family members stood with Richardson.

"Greg was a good kid," the Pioneer Press reported Richardson saying. "I stand tall and brave because my son stood tall and brave."

Kyle Richardson, Rundell's brother, had deployed to Iraq with the Minnesota National Guard and had told his brother what to expect.

Kyle Richardson said he had lost a good friend in Iraq, and "now I've lost a brother," the newspaper reported him saying. "I can't even describe it. There's sadness all around."

Schofield Barracks said Rundell joined the Army in August 2005 and was assigned to the Hawai'i post in January 2006.

About 4,000 Hawai'i Stryker brigade soldiers serve in the Taji and Tarmiya areas just north of Baghdad. The soldiers deployed in November and December for up to 15 months in Iraq.

A Stryker vehicle from Schofield Barracks was hit by a roadside bomb last month in Taji, killing four soldiers. Six other soldiers were wounded.

The first Stryker combat fatality occurred Jan. 19, when Spc. Jon Michael Schoolcraft III, 26, of Wapakoneta, Ohio, died from wounds suffered when his Stryker vehicle struck a roadside bomb.

That death was four days after the brigade officially took over responsibility for the Taji area northwest of Baghdad.

Schofield soldiers patrol regularly in Taji and Tarmiya, which are both along routes into Baghdad for insurgents, and have medically treated civilians and helped open a police station.