How many more?

The Journal Sentinel reports:

Soldier from Hudson killed in Iraq
Army specialist dies in bomb blast with two other American troops

Hudson native Benjamin A. Smith was on his second tour of duty in Iraq and, his father said, enthusiastic to be back.

"Because of the personalities that most of these men are, they don't like sitting around at the fort," James Smith said Friday of the youngest of his three children. "The whole group was anxious to go back to finish the work."

Having returned to the war only recently, Spc. Smith, 21, was among three soldiers killed Wednesday near Baghdad when a bomb exploded near their Humvee, the Pentagon said Friday.

Smith was the 49th Wisconsin member of the military killed in Iraq.

A 2002 graduate of Hudson High School, Smith was assigned to the Army's 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky.

He was killed alongside 22-year-old Spc. Joshua J. Munger of Maysville, Mo., and 20-year-old Pfc. Tyler R. MacKenzie of Evans, Colo., according to the Pentagon.

During Smith's high school years, he worked as an apprentice welder at Empire Bucket Inc. in Hudson and as a dog handler at the old St. Croix Meadows greyhound park.

"He was a good kid. He was a hard worker. He was a quiet one," said Empire's general manger, Sue Olson. "He was such a skinny kid. The stuff that we work with is so big, and I worry a lot about the younger people."

His father, an engineer, said Benjamin Smith was never daunted.

"He was always looking for a challenge, whether it was well thought out or not," he said.

As a child, he had been active in karate, and in his teens he enjoyed off-road activities, hunting and playing music. He also was active in the Civil Air Patrol.

Benjamin Smith always showed an "aptitude" for the military and enlisted in 2003, his desire fueled in part by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said his father.

At the rank of specialist, Smith had been trained in, among other things, the operation of a light machine gun and had been a squad leader during patrols in Iraq. His father said he was aware of the dangers facing troops there.

"We talked about it a bit. It's was nothing you could do anything about. Ben was never afraid of anything risky," James Smith said.

Other survivors include a brother, a sister and his mother, Lenore Smith, a quilting instructor.

Plans for a memorial service had not been finalized Friday, his father said.