Fort Carson soldier killed in Afghanistan

A Fort Carson soldier was killed in Afghanistan after insurgents attacked his unit, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

Spc. Jason A. McLeod, 22, of Crystal Lake, Ill., was killed Monday in a mortar attack west of Pashmul. He was assigned to the 704th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

McLeod’s death is Fort Carson’s 33rd in Afghanistan and brings the post’s total casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to 288.

A three-year veteran, McLeod served in Iraq for nine months in 2007 and was deployed to Afghanistan in May.

He leaves behind a wife, Amy, and 15-month-old daughter Jocelyn, the Northwest Herald in Illinois reported. Amy McLeod could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

“The Army made him into a man and taught him how to be on his own, and survive and provide,” McLeod’s mother-in-law Julie Ghannam told the Herald. “I felt that he was putting these stepping stones in place so he could work on the latter part of his life.”