A missile strike in Iraq Thursday killed three Minnesota soldiers, all members of the National Guard's 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, family and friends said Friday.

One of those killed near Basra was Carlos Wilcox, 27, of Cottage Grove, whose mother said her son asked her to mail him books so he could study for a medical school entrance exam when he got home. "He knew that God had called him to be a soldier and a doctor," said Charlene Wilcox.

Dan Drevnick, 22, a graduate of Woodbury High School, was also killed in the attack. The third soldier, James Wertish, 20, was from Olivia.

"Three Multi-National Division-South Soldiers were killed when Contingency Operating Base Basra was attacked by indirect fire," the U.S. military said, referring to a mortar or rocket attack. The attack happened around 9:15 p.m. on Thursday.

Three Minnesota National Guard members also were killed in a single attack in February, 2005. The three, members of the 151st Field Artillery based in Montevideo, were killed when a roadside
bomb exploded under their convoy in Baghdad. That was apparently the costliest combat day for Minnesotans since nine were killed in Vietnam on May 5, 1968.

Carlos Wilcox

Wilcox's father died when he was 7, Charlene said, leaving her to raise four children as a single mother. Her son graduated from Tartan High School in Oakdale and attended Arizona State University and Inver Hills Community College before earning a degree in biology at Twin Cities-based Metropolitan State University, she said. Wilcox, who loved to travel, was fluent in Spanish and spent a semester studying abroad in Granada, Spain, she said.

Wilcox was in the process of applying to extend his tour, his mother said. In e-mails and calls home after his deployment this spring, Wilcox told his mother he was attending church and growing stronger in his faith. Charlene said she hadn't been told the circumstances of her son's death, but said his job in Basra was to help secure the base in case of an attack.

"My son died an honorable death, and I'm very proud of him," she said.

Dan Drevnick

Drevnick's most recent job had been patrolling the inner perimeter of the base, said his father, Ken Drevnick of Woodbury. But he didn't know if his son had been on duty at the time of the attack.

Dan Drevnick had been home for two weeks until returning to Iraq July 8. He had 200 days of service remaining in Iraq and planned to return to get a degree in law enforcement, said Ken Drevnick, a retired Minnesota State Patrol officer.

His son joined the National Guard even after being asked if he was certain that's what he wanted by Ken Drevnick's brother and a friend who was a lifelong military man.

"He said, `I'm ready to go. I'll be fighting for my country.' He believed in it," Ken Drevnick said, adding that he gave his son his blessing.

Dan Drevnick was a part-time mechanic at Tires Plus in Woodbury and a full-time student at Century College in White Bear Lake before his deployment to Iraq in March. He and his father were also drag-racing partners, winning trophies at tracks all over the Midwest in Ken Drevnick's 1969 Camaro and, more recently, Dan Drevnick's own Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

His son made sure to spend time with his family as well as his friends whenever he was home, Ken Drevnick said.

"He didn't leave his elders behind," Ken Drevnick said. "Dan and I had the best father-son relationship I know of."

James Wertish