Our Arklahoma Heritage: Highly decorated US Army veteran from Sequoyah County died in Iraq

Master Sgt. Joshua Lloyd Wheeler

Master Sgt. Joshua Lloyd Wheeler died on October 22, 2015, at age 39 from small-arms fire during a predawn raid on an Islamic State prison compound near Hawija in Iraq’s Kirkuk Province. Assigned to the Army’s Delta Force, he became the first American service member killed in combat against ISIS and the first U.S. combat fatality in Iraq since 2011.

The operation freed about 70 Iraqi hostages who faced imminent execution, with graves already dug outside the facility.

Wheeler grew up in the rural towns of Roland and Muldrow in Sequoyah County. Born on November 22, 1975, he was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He graduated from Muldrow High School in 1994, where he played football and was remembered by those who knew him as quiet and respectful.

Details of his early home life remain private, but accounts from classmates and neighbors describe a young man shaped by the tight-knit communities along the Arkansas River corridor in eastern Oklahoma.

He enlisted in the Army in May 1995 as an infantryman. After basic training, advanced individual training, and Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia, his first posting took him to Company C, 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis, Washington. In February 1997 he joined Company B, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, also at Fort Lewis.

Oer the next seven years he advanced through roles as rifle team leader, squad leader, weapons squad leader, and anti-tank section leader. During that period he deployed three times in support of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.In 2004 Wheeler transferred to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and joined Delta Force as a team leader.

He deployed 11 more times to Iraq and Afghanistan. By the time of his final mission he had accumulated more than 20 years of service and a record of repeated combat tours that placed him among the most experienced operators in the unit.

On the night of October 21-22, 2015, roughly 30 U.S. special operations soldiers, including Wheeler’s Delta team, supported Kurdish Peshmerga forces in a raid on the ISIS-held prison about seven kilometers north of Hawija. Intelligence indicated the hostages, many of them Iraqi security force members, would be killed within hours.

The plan called for Kurdish fighters to lead the assault, with American troops providing advisory support. Once the compound was breached, gunfire erupted inside. Wheeler, who had been directing the Kurdish element from outside, moved forward into the fight. He ran toward the source of the enemy fire to protect the team and the Peshmerga who had entered the building.

His actions, along with those of a teammate, helped secure the compound and ensured the hostages could be extracted. Four Peshmerga were wounded in the operation; about 20 ISIS fighters were killed and five detained.

All 70 hostages reached safety.Wheeler was struck by enemy fire during the exchange and died while receiving medical care at the scene. The mission marked a significant early success in the U.S.-led effort against ISIS in Iraq.

For his actions that day Wheeler received the Silver Star posthumously. His full list of awards includes 11 Bronze Star Medals, four of them with valor devices, the Purple Heart, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, and multiple Army Commendation and Achievement Medals.

In July 2016 the Cherokee Nation awarded him the Medal of Patriotism.

Wheeler left behind a wife and four sons. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Memorial services took place in North Carolina, where he was stationed, and in Muldrow, where former teachers, coaches, and neighbors gathered to remember the local son who had risen through the ranks of the Army’s most selective units.

The portion of U.S. Highway 64 beginning at the junction with State Highway 64B in Sequoyah County, extending east to the junction with County Road N4760, is designated as the "MSG Joshua Wheeler, U.S. Army, Memorial Highway" 

In Sequoyah County,

Wheeler’s story remains tied to the land and the people who knew him before the uniform. His path from the high school fields of Muldrow to Delta Force operations reflects a steady progression built on discipline and repeated deployments rather than any single dramatic turning point.

Ten years after his death, the details of that final raid continue to illustrate the risks taken by special operations forces in the early campaign against ISIS, and the cost carried by one soldier from rural Oklahoma.