Granite City, Ill. ? A Metro East serviceman was a medic training to be a doctor’s assistant when his Blackhawk helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing him and another soldier, his grandfather said.

The Defense Department said Friday that Sgt. Steven P. Mennemeyer, 26, of Granite City, died along with Sgt. Jeffery S. Brown, 25, of Trinity Center, Calif., when their U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter went down Tuesday into a lake near Rubtbah, Iraq, west of Baghdad.

Both were assigned to the 82nd Medical Company, an air ambulance outfit out of Fort Riley, Kan.

Four other service members, two from the Army and two from the Navy, were injured in the crash during a routine flight in Anbar province. The military has said the crash was not a result of hostile fire.

The two deaths bring the total of Fort Riley soldiers killed in Iraq to 78, including 11 from reserve units mobilized through Fort Riley.