Number 95

Kentucky's 95th sacrifice - and fifth in 20 days - to the voracious maw of futile death that is the Iraq/Afghanistan clusterfuck is a man with a beautiful singing voice.

Family members hoped that Staff Sgt. Christopher T. Stout would pursue singing after high school. Instead, the Worthville, Ky., native joined the Army.

On Tuesday he was one of three soldiers from Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division killed in Kandahar City, Afghanistan.

He was 34.

He had a beautiful voice and would sing in church choirs and karaoke, but he felt it was his duty to serve his country, said his uncle, James Stout.

"I believe he could have made it professionally," James Stout said. "But he thought of others rather than thinking of himself."

His nephew was raised in the Pentecostal church and had hopes of being a minister, James Stout said.

He had been living with his wife and three daughters near Fort Bragg. James Stout said family members are torn up over Christopher Stout's death, remembering him as a courteous, people-oriented person.

He thought it was his duty to join the military, James Stout said.

"And we were proud that he thought that way."

Five Kentucky casualties in 20 days is not even an Iraq/Afghanistan clusterfuck record for the Commonwealth. In April 2006, six Kentuckians died in Iraq over 13 days.