A graduate of Tulsa Hale High School has died in Iraq of a non-hostile gunshot wound, the Department of Defense reported Thursday.

Funeral services for Army Spc. Dustin Knight McGaugh are pending at Moore Funeral Home.

Members of his immediate family weren't available for comment Thursday evening.

The Defense Department said that McGaugh, 20, was assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, at Fort Sill.

He died Tuesday, the Defense Department reported.

Rhonda Link of Tulsa, whose family corresponded with the soldier, said McGaugh graduated from Hale High School in 2001.

He was deployed to Iraq earli er this year, she said.

The circumstances of his death were unclear Thursday evening.

"He was a good young man. The best. He had the attitude that what he was doing he was doing for his country," Link said.

She said he would have been 21 in December.

He saw the Army as a way to gain an education, Link said.

A total of 317 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, the Department of Defense reported.

Since May 1, when President Bush proclaimed that major fighting was over, around 175 U.S. service members have died in Iraq, according to the Defense Department.

Rob Martindale 581-8367
rob.martindale@tulsaworld.com