Jamie Q. Maugans
AP
Hometown: Derby, Kan.
Family: Single
Unit: U.S. Army, 710th Ordnance Company, Sergeant
Maugans was one of four U.S. soldiers killed after Soviet-era missiles they were trying to destroy accidentally exploded north of Kandahar. Several other soldiers were injured during the series of six blasts next to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's former compound in an area where large caliber rockets confiscated from former Taliban ammunition dumps are normally destroyed in controlled detonations.
The ordnance disposal specialist based in San Diego described his job as the Fourth of July on a bigger scale. "He'd say, 'Where else can I go to work every day and blow really big stuff up?"' said his stepmother Mary Maugans.
After graduating from Derby High School in 1993, Maugans attended Cowley County Community College and the University of Kansas. Maugans used to stutter when he was under stress, but eliminated it through a summer program at Wichita State University. He enlisted in the Army about three years ago, stunning his family. Maugans spent a year in Korea, then was stationed at Point Loma in California as part of a special detachment assigned to check for explosives in hotels and other locations before they were used by President Clinton or candidates in the 2000 election.
He was last home in October 2001, when he served as best man at his brother Chad's wedding. He left for Afghanistan in November. His family last heard from him in an e-mail on Easter, when he said he'd be home in a month.