Local serviceman killed in Jordan

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The Pentagon says three U.S. military members have been killed in a shooting outside a military base in southern Jordan. A spokesman says the three were in Jordan on a training mission, and came under fire while driving into the base.

One of the Americans that died in Jordan  has been identified as Houston resident, Staff Sgt. Jim Moriarty . The 27 year old had already served 3 tours of duty in Jordan as a member of the U.S. Special Forces.

"I've had people say you adjust. I don't believe them, but they say that," said father James Moriarty in a phone interview Saturday, "and maybe they're right, but this is a devastating loss." Moriarty, a Vietnam veteran himself, called his son one of the finest soldier he'd ever know.

"That devastating knock on the door came Friday night at 9:00 p.m. last night", says Wayne Dolcefino, the spokesman for the Moriarty family. "My friend Jim is heartbroken at the death of his only son, who had followed in his father's service to the country."

He was a graduate of Strake Jesuit High School and Annunciation Orthodox schools here in Houston.

Staff Sgt. Moriarty was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky after graduating from the University of Texas in Austin with a B.B.A. in Economics.

According to a statement, he was due to come back to the United States in just two weeks.

Jordan is a key U.S. ally, and a member of a U.S.-led military coalition fighting the Islamic State group, which controls parts of neighboring Iraq and Syria.

In addition to the U.S. casualties, officials say a Jordanian officer was wounded.

Jordan faces homegrown extremism, with hundreds of Jordanians fighting alongside IS militants in Iraq and Syria and several thousand more supporting the extremist group in the kingdom.