Edmond soldier is killed in Afghanistan attack

EDMOND — A week after Rex Schad graduated high school in Edmond, his mother paid the application fees to enroll him at the University of Central Oklahoma.

A few hours later he “confessed” that what he really wanted to do was join the Army, said his mother, Colleen Whipple. Schad unenrolled from UCO and joined the military.

The 25-year-old staff sergeant died Monday in Afghanistan, the victim of an insider attack by an Afghan police officer, family members said.

Schad had been in Afghanistan since November on his second tour, said his grandfather, Harold Whipple, of Edmond.

Two chaplains and an Army sergeant visited the family Monday afternoon and told them Schad had been killed earlier in the day.

Colleen Whipple said she knew her son had been killed when she saw men sitting in a van outside her house.

“It's a shame,” Colleen Whipple said. “But it's what he wanted to do.”

Family members said Schad never wavered from the commitment he made to the Army just after he graduated high school.

“He was a soldier,” Harold Whipple said. “He was where he wanted to be. Not only did he enlist in the Army, but he had asked to be put in the infantry.”

U.S. Army officials reported two soldiers and two Afghan police officers were killed Monday in eastern Afghanistan when another Afghan police officer opened fire on them. The attacker also was killed in the shoot-out in the eastern Wardak province.