VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) – A Marine reservist based in Eugene, Ore., died in a collision between two military vehicles last week in Kuwait, Pentagon officials have revealed.

Lance Cpl. Cedric E. Bruns, 22, of Vancouver, Wash., was driving a Humvee pickup truck that collided nearly head-on with a logistics support vehicle, similar to a flatbed truck, said 1st Sgt. Thomas Thomas of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion in Portland, Ore.

Bruns, a Prairie High School graduate assigned to the 6th Engineer Support Battalion’s 4th Force Service Support Group, arrived in Kuwait in January for his first tour of duty overseas, Thomas said.

The son of Peter and Debbie Bruns of Vancouver, he was a combat engineer in a unit trained to do “anything from demolition to building,” Gunnery Sgt. Rick Nelson said.

Bruns’ girlfriend, Shanna Ehlers, said Monday she didn’t know when or where memorial services would be held.

The dead Marine’s parents were not available for comment. Bruns’ grandparents, Bill and Barbara Bruns, live in Bangor.

Details of the two-vehicle accident “are still pretty sketchy” and under investigation, Lt. Col. Mike Barnes in Portland told the Eugene Register-Guard.

A friend of Bruns, Lance Cpl. Shane Hafner, 21, of Vancouver, said the crash occurred Friday during a blinding wind.

“Things are starting to pick up a little,” Bruns wrote friends in Vancouver in one of his last notes before the war began. “We’ve been doing a lot of training exercises. They tell us we’re leaving this camp soon to move in to occupy Iraq and Baghdad.”

Barnes said he didn’t know if Bruns saw wartime action in Iraq or was assigned only to Kuwait.

About 130 reservists reported for duty Jan. 14 in Eugene and were deployed to Camp Pendleton, Calif., about 10 days later before being sent to the Middle East.

AP-ES-05-13-03 1619EDT

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