[Soprano84]

Truck Driver Missing in Iraq Found Dead

Fri Jan 7, 7:23 PM ET Middle East - AP


By BEVERLEY WANG, Associated Press Writer

CONCORD, N.H. - The body of a civilian truck driver missing since April has been found near the place where his convoy was ambushed in Iraq (news - web sites) nine months ago.

William Bradley, 50, lived in New Hampshire before going to Iraq nearly a year ago to drive trucks for Texas-based Halliburton Co., which on Thursday announced the discovery of his remains.


He was in a fuel truck convoy that was ambushed near Baghdad on April 9 — part of a wave of violence in the country at that time. Two members of Bradley's convoy still are unaccounted for, while another, Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., was captured but managed to escape in May.


Four employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR were killed in the attack, and another U.S. soldier in the convoy was found dead later. Halliburton said the attack "remains the deadliest day for Halliburton employees in the Kuwait/Iraq region."


A sister of Bradley, Donna Cureton of Carlsbad, N.M., said Friday she was informed of her brother's death by a representative of Halliburton subsidiary KBR. She said she was told that his remains, discovered by the military on Monday, were in a shallow grave and stripped of clothing.


"My heart broke," Cureton said. "His body had been stripped and he just had a bullet hole right in his forehead."


Suzanne Behringer of Galveston, Texas, was Bradley's common-law-wife. The two broke up in 2001 but remained in touch.


On Friday, she said a military medical examiner who checked the bones determined Bradley was killed during the ambush and buried shortly afterward.


"I'm glad he's home in the United States and I'm glad he wasn't tortured — those things I can thank God for," she said.


Wilma Procter, a Chesterfield resident and Bradley's girlfriend, was on the road in Massachusetts on Friday when she learned the news in a call from The Associated Press.


"I don't know what to say," she said, crying. "I'm never going to see the sparkle in his eyes. I'm never going to see that smile."


The two shared a passion for motorcycles, and had talked about traveling through Europe when he completed his stint in Iraq. Procter also is a truck driver.


Family and friends said Bradley was an outgoing man — gentle and fun, with an adventurous streak — who went to Iraq despite pleas not to go.


"He wanted to help, he wanted to meet the people; there wasn't any way to talk him out of it," Cureton said.


Friends said Bradley left New Hampshire early last year and arrived in Kuwait March 14; less than a month later, he was missing.


The other missing members of his convoy are Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, and Timothy Bell, also a truck driver for Halliburton, of Mobile, Ala. Arab television reported June 29 that Maupin had been killed; he is listed as missing by the U.S. military. Halliburton says it has no new information about Bell.