Body of Tyler Iubelt to arrive in USA this week

Members of Tyler Iubelt's family said Monday the military is making arrangements to return the remains of the 20-year-old serviceman to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday or Wednesday, and that family members will meet the casket when it arrives.

The military has not confirmed that information.

Iubelt was among four Americans - two soldiers and two contractors - who were killed by a suicide bomber Saturday in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army and the Pentagon are working with the soldier's parents - father Mike Iubelt and mother Charlotte Loquasto - and Tyler's wife, Shelby, to assure that dignity and the appreciation of a grateful nation will be present as his body is returned to southern Illinois.

Searby Funeral Home in Du Quoin and Tamaroa is in charge of the arrangements, but those arrangements are not yet finalized.

The servicemen on the Bagram Airfield NATO air base, north of Kabul, were finishing an early morning fundraising fun run and were heading to the dining hall when the bomber touched off the device. Besides the four killed, 16 soldiers were injured.

It is the third death of a Perry County soldier in the Middle East since 2004.

Tyler, 20, was a Tamaroa resident, attending the Tamaroa Grade School, then graduating in 2015 from Pinckneyville Community High School.

Several posts on Shelby Iubelt's Facebook page carry the prayers of the Tamaroa Grade School, the Pinckneyville High School staff and students and residents of Du Quoin as the community begins the painful process of somehow finding closure.