With tears in his eyes, Gov. Ed Rendell today ordered state flags in Pennsylvania to be flown at half staff until Sept. 11 to honor Pennsylvania Army National Guardsmen killed in Iraq.

Five guardsmen were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq Tuesday, and two were killed Saturday. Six of the seven were from the same company, the Philadelphia-based A Company of the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment.

"They were police officers, firefighters and youth counselors," the governor said at a news conference in Harrisburg. "They were husbands, fathers and beloved sons. They were young and middle aged, black and white.

"Their deaths bring home the crushing reality of war to Pennsylvanians," Rendell said. "It shows there is a price to pay for what we are doing to fight terrorism."

Brig. Gen. Jerry Beck, a deputy commander of the 28th Division, to which the 111th Infantry belongs, announced at a news conference in Philadelphia the deaths of Spcs. Gennaro Pellegrini, 31, and Francis Straub Jr., 24, both of Philadelphia; and Pfcs. John Kulick, 35, of Jenkintown, and Nathaniel Detample, 19, of Morrisville.

The soldiers were killed near midnight Tuesday while on patrol near the town of Beiji, 150 miles north of Baghdad, when the Humvees in which they were riding were attacked by a roadside bomb, and then by small arms fire. Three other soldiers were slightly wounded.

Earlier in the evening, Staff Sgt. Bryan Ostrom, 25, of the Williamsport-based B Company of the 109th Infantry, was killed by small arms fire while conducting combat operations in the town of Habiniyah, about 55 miles west of Baghdad.