Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

4th ID casualties from Afghan battle identified

The Defense Department on Wednesday identified the eight soldiers who were killed last Saturday during a deadly, hours-long attack on their combat outpost in northeastern Afghanistan.

The soldiers were from 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, of Fort Carson, Colo.

They are:

• Staff Sgt. Vernon W. Martin, 25, of Savannah, Ga.

• Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos, 27, of Tucson, Ariz.

• Sgt. Joshua M. Hardt, 24, of Applegate, Calif.

• Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk, 30, of South Portland, Maine

• Sgt. Michael P. Scusa, 22, of Villas, N.J.

• Spc. Christopher T. Griffin, 24, of Kincheloe, Mich.

• Spc. Stephan L. Mace, 21, of Lovettsville, Va.

• Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson, 22, of Reno, Nev.

Officials estimate 150 to 200 enemy fighters attacked the soldiers’ combat outpost in Kamdesh, a rugged, mountainous district in Afghanistan’s Nuristan Province, using small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and indirect fire. Twenty-four other American soldiers were wounded in the battle.

The attack was the deadliest single incident in Afghanistan since July 13, 2008, when nine soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, were killed when their vehicle patrol base in Wanat, also in northeastern Afghanistan, was attacked in an eerily similar assault. A new investigation was ordered last week into what happened at Wanat.

Related reading:

Morale of hard-hit Carson unit said to be improving