Fort Riley ? Two soldiers from Fort Riley have been killed in Iraq, including a Wichita soldier who was killed Monday in Taji when a bomb detonated near his vehicle, Army officials said Wednesday.

Killed was 1st. Sgt. Timmy J. Millsap, 39, of Wichita. He was a combat engineer with Company A, 70th Engineer Battalion of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. Millsap was on his second tour in Iraq, returning to the war in February. He was in Iraq from March 2003 to March 2004.

Fort Riley spokeswoman Sam Robinson said another soldier from the base was killed in a separate incident, but his identity was not released pending notification of relatives.

But a family member identified that soldier as Sgt. David Rice, 22, of Sioux City, Iowa. His mother, Laurinda Finken, said Rice was killed Monday, northeast of Baghdad.

The announcements bring the number of Fort Riley soldiers killed in Iraq to 50. Approximately 4,300 Fort Riley soldiers are deployed to Iraq.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius extended her deepest sympathy to the Millsap family Wednesday.

“Sgt. Millsap has made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom,” she said. “My thoughts and prayers are with his family, fellow soldiers and friends.”

Millsap enlisted in the Army in December 1984 and had been stationed at Fort Riley since January 1999.

Soon after joining the Army, he married his high school sweetheart in Wichita. Less than a week later, the newlyweds moved to his first assignment in Germany, his wife, Alyne Millsap, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. They spent about four years there before transferring to duties in Colorado, Hawaii and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Millsap also served in Bosnia and Kuwait in the 1990s.

Along the way, the Millsaps had a daughter, who is now 14.

“He was a small guy,” standing about 5-foot-6, Alyne Millsap said. “But his personality was larger than life.”

Millsap returned to Iraq just a day after his wife’s birthday this year. He would send e-mails home about twice a week, she said. Not long ago, he was able to see her live through a computer Web camera, but she could not see him.

“He was a funny dude. We spent a lot of time laughing together,” said Millsap’s friend and fellow soldier Terry Alvarez, who is stationed at Fort Riley.

“He loved being a soldier and when they needed him to go back to Iraq, he was ready,” Alvarez said. “He hated it when people badmouthed the war, the president or anything like that.”