Parents: Soldier killed in Pakistan was from Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

Mark Stets feared the worst for his son as soon as he read the first reports online Wednesday morning: Three Americans had just been killed in an explosion in northwest Pakistan. They were there to train local paramilitary forces, and though they were soldiers, witnesses said, the Americans were dressed like civilians.

The names of the victims weren't given, but the descriptions were all too familiar.

"I knew that's what he was there to do, and I knew that not too many people are doing jobs like that in Pakistan," said Stets, who lives in Virginia Beach. "I thought, 'It's Mark. He's coming home early.' "

By the next morning, Stets and his wife, Nancy, were on their way to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to meet the casket carrying their only child, 39-year-old Mark Stets Jr. His body was to arrive Thursday night.

The Department of Defense hasn't released the names of the soldiers who died in the explosion, but Stets' family has confirmed that he was among them.

A Cox High School graduate who grew up in Virginia Beach, he'd been working in Pakistan since November. The Taliban has taken responsibility for the bomb attack that killed him and at least six other people.

Stets and the two other American victims were part of a psychological operations detachment based at Fort Bragg, N.C. They'd been serving near the Afghan border with a special operations team that trains Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps in counterinsurgency tactics, such as humanitarian and intelligence work.

They were on their way to a ceremony marking the reopening of a girls school rebuilt with U.S. aid money when a suicide attacker struck their vehicle, the military said.

"We know that what he was doing was important," Stets' father said Thursday. "And we know he was good at it. We're taking comfort in that right now."

A staff sergeant, Stets had followed in his dad's footsteps and joined the Navy out of high school in 1989. He served in the Persian Gulf War and spent four years as a sailor before eventually switching to the Army, where he stayed for the rest of his career, his family said.

As a soldier, Stets served in Korea, studied Arabic and trained as a paratrooper. He joined psychological operations about six years ago, his father said. Around 2006 he broke a vertebra during a paratrooper training jump but recovered. He once appeared in uniform in a Lockheed Martin TV commercial.

"He absolutely loved the military and he loved his job," said Gwen Odum, a family friend. "And by all accounts, he was very good at it."

For the past 12 years Stets had lived in Fayetteville, N.C., his family said. With his wife, Nina Stets, he had three daughters, ages 14, 18 and 21.

"His girls adored him," Stets' father said.

After his family and the military, relatives said, Stets' biggest love was his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He was part of a motorcycle club in Fayetteville that's now planning a ride in his memory.

Stets' father said he and his wife talked frequently with their son while he was in Pakistan, though he spoke only in vague terms about his work there. Relatives said he dressed like a Pakistani civilian for many of his missions and that he described his job there as "marketing to the enemy."

"He was trying to sell them on our way of life and on peace and democracy," his father said. "He was proud of what he was doing."

Stets is among the first known U.S. military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan's Afghan border region, where militants are being pummeled by U.S. missile strikes and struggling to regroup after the loss of a key stronghold in a recent Pakistani army offensive.

The blast that killed Stets also claimed three girls at a nearby school and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier traveling with the Americans. Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with about 100 other people, mostly students at the school.

Reports differed over whether the Americans were the targets of the bomber, an apparent suicide attacker who drove a car packed with explosives into Stets' convoy. Witnesses said his vehicle took the brunt of the explosion.

Stets' family said he was scheduled to return from Pakistan this July. They plan to cremate his remains and hold services in Fayetteville and in Virginia Beach, though they've not set dates.

Pilot writer Lauren King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Corinne Reilly, (757) 446-2949, corinne.reilly@pilotonline.com