NORTH ST. PAUL SOLDIER KILLED BY SNIPER IN IRAQ

By ABBY SIMONS and MARY LYNN SMITH, Star Tribune

March 27, 2008

http://www.startribune.com/local/17068491.html

Long before Joanne Richardson's third child, a son, joined the Army, he was a bespectacled kid who loved to draw, and had his first and last fight with a childhood best friend in North St. Paul.

Not so long before Spc. Gregory B. Rundell, 21, was killed by enemy sniper fire while manning a guard tower in Iraq Wednesday, the soldier was pulled over doing 90 miles per hour in his mother's beloved car. The recent recruit joked to his little brother in the passenger seat that he might ask the trooper for a military discount.

Richardson, her four remaining children and a throng of puffy-eyed relatives said Thursday night that they wanted people to know those things about Rundell, a warrior who died bravely for his country, but to his family was so much more.

"I would like you all to know that Greg was a good kid," Richardson said at a news conference at the St. Paul National Guard Armory Thursday night. "When Greg decided to join the Army it broke my heart because I knew this day might come."

Lt. Col. Almarah Belk with the Department of Defense said the soldier was killed by small arms sniper fire in Taji, Iraq.

Click on link to read full account.