Sad Story -

Kathryn41 · December 9, 2006

Engagement ring arrived hours before death notice, soldier's family says

Last Updated: Friday, December 8, 2006 | 4:43 PM ET

The Associated Press

A soldier's fiancée received a package in the mail with an engagement ring hours after she learned he had been killed in Iraq, his family said.

Sgt. Yevgeniy Ryndych, a 24-year-old New Yorker, died Wednesday in Ramadi, the U.S. Defence Department said.

"He had proposed over the phone from Iraq within the past month," said the soldier's brother, Ivan Ryndych. "He bought an engagement ring over the Internet."

Ryndych, who was born in Ukraine and immigrated to New York City as a teenager, was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, his brother said.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion based at Fort Carson, Colo.

Ivan Ryndych said his brother had gone on to a special forces unit after his first tour in Iraq ended last year but volunteered to rejoin his old unit when it headed back. "His exact words to me were, 'I don't want to leave them behind."'

A flag flew at half-mast outside the family's Staten Island home Thursday; inside, photographs of Ryndych in uniform were displayed in the living room.

A voracious reader who enjoyed military-strategy games, Ryndych had wanted to join the army for years, his brother said.

"He just liked the whole Army concept," Ivan Ryndych said.