Army: Soldiers’ vehicle went off overpass - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Army: Soldiers’ vehicle went off overpass

The soldiers who were killed and injured Monday in a single-vehicle accident in Baghdad were riding in an armored cargo truck that plunged 50 feet off a highway overpass.

The soldiers, all from 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, were returning to an unidentified operations base after a late-night raid in the northern Baghdad suburb of Shula, according to an Army press release.

Seven soldiers and two detainees were killed in the accident and 11 soldiers and one detainee were injured.

Fifteen U.S. soldiers were in an armored troop carrier on the back of the 2.5-ton light medium tactical vehicle and three people were riding in the cab. The soldiers had detained three suspects in the raid and were transporting them back to the base.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Two of the injured soldiers have been returned to duty and a third is expected to return within a week. The rest of the injured were evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

The injured detainee is receiving medical attention at a hospital in Baghdad.

The soldiers of 1-73 Cavalry were attached to 1st Battalion, 325 Airborne Infantry Regiment, which was attached to the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

The vehicle is regularly used by 1-325 to transport soldiers, equipment and detainees, the release said.

The soldiers who were killed were identified by the Army as:

• Pfc. Ari D Brown-Weeks, 23, of Abingdon, Md.

• Pfc. Steven Elrod, 20, of Hope Mills, N.C.

• Staff Sgt. Yance Gray, 26, of Ismay, Mont.

• Sgt. Michael C. Hardegree, 21, of Villa Rica, Ga.

• Sgt. Omar Mora, 28, of Texas City, Texas.

• Sgt. Nicholas Patterson, 24, of Rochester, Ind.

• Staff Sgt. Gregory Rivera-Santiago, 26, of St. Croix, Virgin Islands.

Two of the soldiers, Mora and Gray, had co-written with five other 1-73 Cavalry soldiers a New York Times opinion column that questioned the role of the U.S. in Iraq and expressed doubts that the Iraqis could be counted on to meet benchmarks set for their government and forces.

The other five soldiers who contributed to the Aug. 19 article were Spc. Buddhika Jayamaha, Sgt. Wesley D. Smith, Sgt. Jeremy Roebuck, Sgt. Edward Sandmeier and Staff Sgt. Jeremy A. Murphy.

Murphy, as recounted in the op-ed piece, was shot in the head during combat operations the week before the column’s publication and is expected to survive.

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