WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Defense announced the death a Jefferson County soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt 1st Class Michael J. Tully, 33, of Falls Creek died Aug. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Lewis, Wash.
Sgt. 1st Class Adrian M. Elizalde, 30, of North Bend, Ind., was killed in the same attack.
The U.S. Army Special Operations Command News Service reports that both men were members of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula.
Tully volunteered for military service and entered the Marine Corps in Feb. 1993 after graduating from high school in 1992, according to USASOC. He transferred to the Army in 1997 and was assigned as an infantryman in Company E, 313th Military Intelligence Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. Tully then served as a LRSD assistant team leader in the same unit one year later before earning the coveted “Green Beret” after graduating from the Special Forces Qualification Course in 2006. Tully was assigned to 2nd Bn., 1st SFG(A) at Fort Lewis Wash., in Dec. 2006.
Tully is survived by his wife, Heather of Columbus, Ga., and his son, Slade of North Port, Fla. He is also survived by his father and step mother, Jack and Marilyn Tully of Falls Creek; mother Dolores Newman of Glendale, Ariz.; brother John Tully of Anchorage, Alaska (currently serving in Iraq); and his sister Heather A. Farkas of Northampton.