Sunday, October 25th 2015, 11:38 am
The first U.S. soldier killed in the conflict with ISIS is back state side Sunday morning. Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler's body arrived at Dover Air Force Base Saturday where his family was waiting for him.
Wheeler grew up near Roland, Oklahoma and graduated from Muldrow High School.
The 39 year old was killed during a raid of an ISIS prison in Iraq where 70 people were rescued from execution.
The department of defense credits Wheeler with the success of the mission. Muldrow High School Principal Steve Page says the students and faculty are proud to call him one of their own.
10/23/2015 Related Story: Muldrow Residents Remember Soldier Killed Fighting ISIS
"To be willing to go in and go through that kind of mission for human life and to fight the terrorist threat that ISIS is and to know that you could go in there and I could lose my life, that just says a lot about his character and about his willingness to defend the country," Page said.
No word on if he will come back to Oklahoma to be buried.
Wheeler joined the military in 1995. He was assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command in 2004, and deployed eleven times to support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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