Austin GI among 2 killed in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP/KXAN) - An Army sergeant from Austin was among two soldiers killed last week in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan.

A Defense Department statement Monday identifies the two killed Thursday as 41-year-old Sgt. John E. Hansen of Austin 1st Lt. Sean R. Jacobs, 23, of Redding Calif.

The two died in a roadside bombing in the southern Afghan town of Khakrez. Both were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

According to military records, Hansen's first military hitch was in the Air Force. He joined in October 1999.

In September 2006 he joined the Army and had assignments at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Fort Carson, Colo., and Fort Bragg, N.C., before reporting to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Dec. 2011, where he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

He deployed with this unit to Afghanistan in April. This was his second deployment. He deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from December 2007 to February 2009.