Mom says Carson soldier killed in convoy attack 'was a sweet kid'

A Fort Carson soldier died when insurgents bombed a convoy in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced today.

Pfc. Matthew E. Wildes, 18, of Hammond, La., was killed Thursday by the roadside bomb that struck a convoy from the 4th Brigade Combat Team. The brigade, part of Fort Carson’s 4th Infantry Division, went to Afghanistan in May to patrol a four-province area along the Pakistan border.

“He was a sweet kid,” his mother Mary Wildes said. “He didn’t like me saying that, but he was a kid. I treated him like a baby. But he was my baby.”

Mary Wildes last spoke with her son the day before his death. They chatted on Myspace instant messenger, and Wildes told him she loved him but she didn’t want to waste his allotted 30 minutes on the computer.

Matthew Wildes joined the Army in April 2008. It was a decision his parents tried to sway him from, but he was determined. He took his GED in order to enter the Army as soon as possible, his mother said.

Halfway through basic training, Matthew Wildes was sent home with stress fractures in his legs. He spent his month of recovery anxious to get back and disappointed he wouldn’t be graduating with the soldiers he started with.

He carried that loyalty to the battlefield, Mary Wildes said.

Fort Carson has lost 264 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, including 10 killed since June in a rash of Afghan attacks.

Wildes arrived at Fort Carson in October after basic training where he learned to be an infantryman, the Army said.