OPA-LOCKA - A Coast Guardsman killed in Iraq Saturday was based in South Florida, the government said Monday.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal, 24, a damage controlman from Smithtown, N.Y., had been assigned to the Coast Guard Air Station in this Miami suburb. He became the first member of that service to die in battle since Vietnam.
Bruckenthal died of wounds suffered in an attack that began when three small boats pulled near the Al-Basra and Khawr al-Amaya oil terminals in Persian Gulf waters 100 miles off Iraq's port of Umm Qasr. The boats exploded when approached by U.S. naval teams sent to intercept them. The boat near Khawr al-Amaya flipped over a U.S. Navy interception craft, killing Bruckenthal and two sailors.
Bruckenthal was scheduled to return in a month from his second stint in Iraq, said Cmdr. Glenn Grahl. He had previously served there from February to May last year.
"He was honored to do anything the Coast Guard asked him," said Daniel Burgoyne, a friend and fellow petty officer. Bruckenthal's wife is three months pregnant, friends and family members said.
