Army Sgt. Lerando J. Brown

Died March 15, 2008 serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom

27, of Gulfport, Miss.; assigned to the 288th Sapper Company, 223rd Engineer Battalion, Mississippi Army National Guard, Houston, Miss.; died March 15 in Balad, Iraq, from injuries sustained in an accident that is currently under investigation.

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Gulfport soldier killed in Iraq

By Kathleen Baydala

(Jackson) Clarion-Ledger

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Mississippi Army National Guard soldier in Iraq.

Sgt. Lerando Brown of Gulfport died Saturday in Balad, Iraq, “from injuries suffered in an incident currently under investigation,” according to the Department of Defense. He is the 48th Mississippian to die in Iraq since March 2003.

Brown, 27, was assigned to the 288th Sapper Company, 223rd Engineer Battalion in Houston, Miss.

Lt. Col. Tim Powell with National Guard said this was Brown’s first deployment.

He had been in Iraq since September, when he arrived there with more than 90 other members of the 228th.

Brown’s funeral has been scheduled for noon March 26 at Harts Chapel Church in Poplarville. He will be buried at the Biloxi National Cemetery.