Topeka ? Gov. Mark Parkinson ordered flags to fly at half-staff Tuesday in honor of a soldier from Hutchinson who was killed recently in Iraq.

Sgt. Ralph Mena was killed May 3 near Tikrit from what the Defense Department says were injuries suffered in a noncombat incident.

Mena was 27 years old and had been in the Army for seven years. He was serving with A Company, 72nd Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 5th Signal Command, Mannheim, Germany.

A national policy adopted in 2007 allows the state to order the U.S. and Kansas flags lowered to half-staff whenever a member of the Kansas National Guard, Army Reserve or active duty military is killed in the line of duty. Governors may choose the date to lower the flags.