Fallen Soldier: Ian P. McLaughlin

Staff Sergeant Ian Paul McLaughlin, 29, of Newport News, VA. was killed Saturday, January 11, 2020 in Kandahar, Afghanistan when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. SSG McLaughlin was assigned to the 307th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This was SSG McLaughlin’s first deployment.

SSG McLaughlin was born August 1, 1990, in Newport News, VA. He graduated from Menchville High School in 2008 and joined the Army in 2012 as a Heavy Construction Equipment Operator. His first assignment was with the 62nd Engineering Battalion at Fort Hood, TX where he met and married his wife, Tarah. He graduated Airborne School in 2016 and proudly became a Jump Master.

His mother said he was “Just a perfect example of a wonderful father and a wonderful son and man, and he served his country very proudly and he never, he never had a fear … If he did he never shared it. He went wholeheartedly into his career with the Army.”

He is survived by his wife and four children.