Here are recent headlines about the military in Kansas:Fort Riley ¢ 1st Infantry Division(49abcnews) Fort Riley soldier killed in action: The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers, one who was stationed at Fort Riley. The men were participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. 1st Class John S. Stephens, 41, of San Antonio, Texas, died March 15 in Tikrit of wounds suffered when his patrol came under attack during combat operations. Stephens was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in Fort Riley. Also, Sgt. Nimo W. Tauala, 29, of Honolulu, Hawaii, died March 17 in Muqdadiyah of a non-combat related injury. His death is under investigation. Tauala was assigned to the 209th Aviation Support Battalion, Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Seven U.S. troops were killed over the weekend in attacks in western Baghdad and Diyala and Anbar provinces. As of today, 3,222 service members have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom; 2,601 of them were killed in action.Fort Leavenworth(AP) 4 years later, Iraq effort manned by new waves of Americans: David Sutherland knew in advance that U.S. forces would invade Iraq in March 2003 he helped plan it. Months earlier, Sutherland was one of 30 soldiers dispatched to a U.S. military base in Germany to help plot “Phase 3 Charlie” or how to capture Baghdad with minimal damage. At the time, Sutherland was stationed at the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas working on his masters thesis on how to secure a city without destroying it. He was lecturing young Army officers on the topic when the war began. Four years later, he is a colonel in charge of all American forces in Iraq’s volatile Diyala province, northeast of the capital. And U.S. forces are still trying to secure Baghdad. “I knew we’d be here a long time, based on comments by Gen. (Eric) Shinseki, that it would take a large force to secure the population. I assumed there would be an insurgency, given how Saddam’s Fedayeen (paramilitary) melded into the crowds,” Sutherland said.