Monday, July 26, 2010
Soldiers from the 27th Engineering Battalion serving as pall bearers place the coffin of Scott Andrews of Fall River, Mass., into hearse. (AP photo/Robert E. Klein)
Being an engineering battalion instead of an infantry one has not made life any safer for the 700 members of a U.S. Army unit out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The 20th Engineer Brigade’s 27th Engineer Battalion has suffered eight fatalities in the last month in Afghanistan, primarily the result of roadside bomb attacks. The battalion’s job involves traveling ahead of convoys in order to spot and disarm improvised explosive devices (IED) so they don’t pose a risk to other military forces.
The first victim was 24-year-old Sgt. Mario Rodriguez, who was killed June 11 during an attack by insurgents with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. A week later, Spc. Joseph D. Johnson, 24, and Pfc. Gunnar R. Hotchkin, 31, were killed by an IED. On June 21, Spc. Scott A. Andrews, 21, was killed when a suicide bomber attacked his convoy. And on July 14, four battalion members, Spc. Chase B. Stanley, 21; Spc. Jesse D. Reed, 26; Spc. Matthew J. Johnson, 21; and Sgt. Zachary M. Fisher, 24, died when they drove over a roadside bomb.
-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff
Casualties in Afghanistan Hit Bragg Unit Hard (by Mike Hixenbaugh, Fayetteville Observer)
27th Engineering Battalion (Fort Bragg)
Comments