Body of Fort Bragg paratrooper killed in Afghanistan returns home

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) -- The body of a Fort Bragg soldier who was killed in Afghanistan last weekend is being returned to his family.

Staff Sgt. Ian Paul McLaughlin, of Newport News, Va., was one of two soldiers killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan from an improvised explosive device a week ago.

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McLaughlin will be honored at Fort Bragg before his remains are given to his wife and children on Saturday. The funeral procession will then move from the post to Lafayette Funeral Home in Fayetteville.

According to a news release from the 82nd Airborne Division, McLaughlin and Pfc. Villalon of Joliet, Ill., both paratroopers, were conducting combat operations when they were killed. Both men were assigned to the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

Burns said McLaughlin joined the army in 2012. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in 2016. McLaughlin served as a construction engineer and squad leader. Burns said this was McLaughlin's first combat deployment.