Here.

The 276th, with about 500 troops, had made it a year without losing a soldier and is preparing to return home in about a month.

"We almost made it. We almost made it to the end without getting somebody killed," Otto said glumly.

At least four other soldiers with the 276th were injured, but it was not clear how serious their wounds are.

"This is the worst day of my life," Brig. Gen. Carter F. Ham said at the briefing, held at a palace once used by Saddam Hussein's sons. "It's times like these when [our troops] really come shining through."

Tears welled up in his eyes and his voice was thick with emotion. "This hurts, this really hurts."

The military asked that the dead not be identified until families could be notified.

Insurgents have fired mortars at the chow hall more than 30 times this year. One round killed a female soldier with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in the summer as she scrambled for cover in one of the concrete bomb shelters. Workers are building a new steel and concrete chow hall for the soldiers just down the dusty dirt road.