Army Reserve Sgt. Leonel I. Brito

Army Reserve Sgt. Leonel I. Brito has been mobilized and activated for deployment overseas to a forward operating base in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.

Members from all branches of the U.S. military and multinational forces are also assisting in rebuilding Iraq’s economic and governmental infrastructure, and training and preparing Iraqi military and security forces to assume full authority and responsibility in defending and preserving Iraq’s sovereignty and independence as a democracy.

Brito, a light wheeled vehicle mechanic with six years of military service, is regularly assigned to the 28th Military Police Company, Johnstown, Pa.

He is the son of Leonel A. and Maria Brito of Edgewater Place, Beacon, N.Y.