Texan is listed as 138thU.S.casualty

                           Associated Press

                           A career Army sergeant from South Texas was listed Tuesday as the 138th U.S. casualty of the war in
                           Iraq.

                           Like 30 other coalition soldiers, 1st Sgt. Joe Jesus Garza, formerly of Robstown near Corpus Christi,
                           was the victim of a land accident, officials said.

                           The Department of Defense said Garza, 43, was killed in Baghdad on Monday when the Humvee in
                           which he was riding swerved to avoid collision with a civilian vehicle. Garza fell out of his vehicle and
                           was struck by another vehicle operated by an Iraqi civilian, officials said.

                           The 3rd Infantry Division soldier was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment out of Fort
                           Benning, Ga., and resided in nearby Columbus.

                           Officials at the installation said Garza had been in the Army for 19 years and had been based at Fort
                           Benning since July 2000. No other information about Garza, including next of kin, was disclosed by the
                           Army.

                           Thirty-two troops from Britain also have been killed in action, bringing to 170 the total number of
                           coalition fatalities.

                           In addition to the 31 troops killed in land accidents, 94 have been killed by enemy fire, 28 in helicopter
                           accidents, nine by friendly fire, two of illness and two in a soldier's attack on fellow troops at Camp
                           Pennsylvania, Kuwait. Four deaths were listed as "other."