SGT. Keith A. Kline
April 30, 2023
Maj. Ramon J. Mendoza Jr.
May 14, 2023
The Associated Press
When Ed Bendekgey, a Spanish teacher, needed to lighten the mood in the classroom, he could count on Matthew J. Kuglics.
Bendekgey would kick Kuglics a straight line and he knew he could count on an answer. “Even in Spanish,” he said.
An Air Force staff sergeant, Kuglics, 25, of North Canton, Ohio, was killed by a roadside bomb June 5 in Kirkuk, Iraq. He was a 2000 high school graduate and was assigned to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. He last called his family to say he had received their birthday gifts — a Spider-Man Xbox 360 video game, a bottle of dill pickles and a pepperoni sausage.
“He was a perfect son, and the perfect big brother,” said his mother, Donna.
Kuglics, on his second tour, played soccer in high school and continued to play in the Air Force. He had worked in satellite communications and served in Kuwait and South Korea before Iraq.
He also is survived by his father, Les.
His sister, Emily, said she will not forget her brother’s laugh.
“He could walk into a room and the whole room would be glowing and you just knew he was there,” she said. “Even now, I still hear him laughing.”
