Losing one of our own

November 2, 2005
Miss. Guard soldier killed in Iraq


Robert C. Oneto-Sikorski of Bay St. Louis dies in blast

By Holbrook Mohr
The Associated Press

A Mississippi National Guard soldier was killed by a bomb in Iraq on Monday, dealing another blow to a Gulf Coast community devastated by Hurricane Katrina, officials said.

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems officials in Pascagoula said 1st Lt. Robert C. Oneto-Sikorski, before his deployment with the 155th Brigade Combat Team, was a mechanical engineer at Ship Systems' Ingalls Operations in Pascagoula.

"The employees of Northrop Grumman are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Oneto-Sikorski," Phil Teel, president of the company's Ship Systems Sector, said in a statement.
"He lived his life committed to our nation's safety and security, both as soldier and shipbuilder," Teel said.

Oneto-Sikorski, 33, of Bay St. Louis became the 14th Mississippian in the 155th to die since the unit deployed from Camp Shelby, just south of Hattiesburg, in January. He is the first officer in the unit to be killed in action.

Oneto-Sikorski's family in Bay St. Louis, a town devastated by Hurricane Katrina, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lt. Col. Tim Powell, a Guard spokesman, verified that a Mississippi soldier had been killed and his family had been notified.

However, Powell said Department of Defense regulations require officials to wait 24 hours after the notification of kin to provide further details.

Oneto-Sikorski was a 1991 graduate of Hancock County High School, and he later graduated from the University of South Alabama.

Oneto-Sikorski leaves behind two sons and a daughter, according to a personal profile he posted on the Web site, Reunion.com.

Eighteen Mississippi Guard soldiers have been killed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Powell has said the 155th, which is made up of about 3,500 Mississippians and other soldiers from more than a dozen states, is expected to begin returning to Mississippi in waves some time around the end of the year.

The unit — with members from Pennsylvania, California, Washington, Texas, Puerto Rico, Virginia, Missouri, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Utah and Arkansas — is attached to the II Marine Expeditionary Force