A former Utahn, 34, a civilian truck driver described as big-hearted and somewhat learning-challenged because of dyslexia, has died in Iraq.
Kevin J. Rader was killed Aug. 11 when a suspected improvised explosive device went off as he was driving in a convoy, according to his employer, KBR. The company is an engineering and construction section of contractor Halliburton.
"He could bounce down and in and out of trucks and labor, shovel, dig with the best of them. An outgoing kid," said his former boss, Tracy Tregeagle. He also described the struggle that Rader went through to obtain his commercial driver's license.
In a tribute to Rader posted on the Internet, KBR said he was a resident of Pendleton, Ore. But his sister, Karen R. Coffman, who lives in Pendleton, told the Deseret Morning News that he actually spent the previous 10 years in Utah.
However, she added, he was born, grew up and graduated from school in Pendleton. "He was more of an Oregonian," she said.
KBR confirmed that he had lived in Utah. "Mr. Rader's current address was Tooele, but he was a native of Pendleton, Ore. We were asked to use the Pendleton address in his tribute," Patricia M. Mingo, manager of global public relations at KBR's headquarters, told the Deseret Morning News via e-mail.
Rader began working for KBR in January, according to the tribute. He worked for the company's Theater Transpiration Mission, traveling "on roads all over Iraq in arduous conditions and often in a hostile environment" to deliver supplies and equipment, according to the tribute.
Coffman said her brother had no children. He was married but separated. He did not talk much about Utah, she said.
"Kevin was a really big-hearted kind of kid," said Tregeagle, operations manager at the Beck Street offices of Staker & Parson. Then known as Staker Paving & Construction, the company employed Rader about four years before he moved on to a tree-trimming job.
"Kevin would actually do anything I asked of him. He would never ask why. He would just bounce out. . . . There were several times I had to ask Kevin to slow down. He would physically run across the site."
Tregeagle said Rader had to struggle to get his commercial driver's license, but with Tregeagle's help and the help of Rader's wife, he succeeded.
At that time Rader lived in West Valley City. He was fit and wiry, he said.
"He always looked up to me, always showed a lot of respect. . . . I didn't have a minute's problem with Kevin."
Tregeagle described his former employee as having a good heart and being "a real good person. Kevin was gentle."
Although physical remains were recovered after the explosive device went off, so far Rader's body has not been returned to the family.
The body was flown to Dover Air Force Base, Del., where the military maintains a large forensics laboratory. "They are doing DNA testing" to confirm his identity, Coffman said.
Once he is identified, he will be returned to Oregon and buried in Pendleton near his grandmother's grave.
Coffman said she did not have a chance to see Rader before he left for Iraq but believes he was supportive of the United States' role there.
"He always put others before himself," Coffman said. "That was him."
Two other KBR employees, William Bradley and Tim Bell, are still missing following an attack April 9 on a contractor convoy, according to Mingo. That was a separate incident from the attack that killed Rader.
KBR and subcontractors have lost 45 employees in Kuwait and Iraq, according to the company.
E-mail: bau@desnews.com