In Memoriam

[Grace]

5 July 2011

24-year-old US Army Spc Jordan C. Schumann was killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday 5th July 2011 by the blast of a roadside bomb while he was in a Humvee patrol vehicle.

Spc. Schumann, son of a Port St Lucie, Florida family, graduated from St Lucie West Centennial in 2006 and is survived by his wife Sarah, their unborn baby due in September, his parents Clay and Linda, brother Clay Jr., and sister Heather.

[Grace]

5 July 2011

US Army Sergeant Joshua Throckmorton, age 28, was killed in action in Afghanistan on Tuesday 5th July 2011. Sgt. Throckmorton was a native of Battle Creek, Michigan and a father of three.

Sgt. Throckmorton was most recently stationed in Germany, but had previously spent fifteen months in Iraq and was three months in to a one year deployment in Afghanistan.

Article from his hometown paper.

[Grace]

5 July 2011

US Army Sergeant Nicanor Amper IV was killed in Khowst, Afghanistan when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade on 5th July 2011.

36-year-old Sgt. Nicanor, from San Jose, California, served with 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Sgt. Amper was married and had two sons from a previous marriage.

[Grace]

7 July 2011

29-year-old US Marine Staff Sgt. Thomas Joseph Dudley, from Tega Cay, South Carolina, died on 7th July 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

SSgt. Dudley served with Marine Air Group 26, 2nd Marine Air Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina. This was his sixth overseas deployment. He had just two weeks left before returning home.

SSgt. Dudley leaves his wife, Mary, and their three children - Taylor, 13, Thomas Carter, 5 and Jenna Robyn, 23 months.

[Grace]

7 July 2011

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation New Dawn.

They died July 7 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked their convoy using an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to 145th Brigade Support Battalion, 116th Cavalry Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Post Falls, Idaho.

Killed were:

Spc. Nathan R. Beyers, 24, of Littleton, Colo. and

Spc. Nicholas W. Newby, 20, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Beyers -


Newby -

[Grace]

9 July 2011

Retired US Trooper First Class Paul Protzenko died in Afghanistan 9th July 2011 while working for a private contracting firm training Afghan police.

The 47-year-old former Connecticut State Trooper retired in 2009 after 20 years service working for the state police. Prior to that, he had served in the US Army.

At the time of the incident, in Panjshir province, Mr. Protzenko was in a vehicle with US Army Sergeant 1st Class Terryl L. Pasker. An Afghan security officer stopped their vehicle and opened fire. Both men died at the scene. A US soldier in another vehicle shot and killed the Afghan guard.

[Grace]

9 July 2011

US Army Sergeant 1st Class Terryl L. Pasker, age 39, from Cedar Rapids, died on 9th July 2011 in Panjshir province, Afghanistan, after being shot by an Afghan security officer. The assailant was subsequently shot and killed by a US soldier.

Sfc. Pasker, served with the Iowa Army National Guard's Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. He was due to return home later this month. He enlisted in the US Army in July 1990 and joined the Iowa National Guard in April 1995.

Sfc. Pasker, leaves his wife, Erica, of Cedar Rapids, his parents, one brother and two sisters.

In the same incident, Retired US Trooper Paul Protzenko, a civilian contractor died.

[Grace]

10 July 2011

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Sgt. Steven L. Talamantez, 34, of Laredo, Texas, died July 10, in Al Amarah, Iraq, of injuries suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

[Grace]

10 July 2011

101st Airborne Spc. Rafael A. Nieves Jr. was killed in action on 10th July 2011 in Paktika province, Afghanistan during a battle with enemy forces. The 22-year-old, from Albany, New York, died from wounds sustained after his vehicle came under small-arms and RPG fire.

Spc. Nieves served with the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Spc. Nieves leaves his wife Sarah A. McKinney, their two children, Emma Grace and Rafael A. III, his father, Rafael A. Nieves Sr. and his mother, Tina R. Roman.

[Grace]

9 July 2011

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Christopher P. Soderlund, 23, of Pineville, La., died July 9 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with rocket-propelled grenade fire. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.

[Grace]

10 July 2011

US Marine Lance Corporal Norberto Mendez Hernandez, age 22, from Logan, Utah, died on 10th July 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He served with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, California.

[Grace]

France

22-year-old French Army Brigadier Clement Kovac was killed on 11th July 2011 when a colleague accidentally shot him. The incident happened at Operating Base Hutnik in Kapisa province, Afghanistan. He served with the 1st Regiment of Chasseurs.

Brig. Kovac had previously served in New Caledonia and deployed to Afghanistan on 2nd June 2011 as a crew member in a AMX-10 light tank.

His commanding officer said of Brig. Kovak that he was "noted for his sense of responsibility" and that he had "a very good state of mind in all missions he participated in.

The young soldier had been awarded the National Defense Medal (bronze level).

[Grace]

Italy

Italian Army Primo Caporal Maggiore Roberto Marchini was killed by a roadside bomb on Tuesday 12th July 2011 during a joint patrol about 3km from FOB Lavaredo, in Bakwa district, Farah province, Afghanistan. It was the last day of his deployment in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Maj. Marchini, born in 1983, served with the 8th Parachute Engineer Regiment based at Legnago, a unit within the Folgore Parachute Brigade. He was a bomb-disposal engineer on his third overseas combat mission.

He joined the army in 2005 and was proud to be a part of a team specializing in reconnaissance and bomb disposal. He leaves his parents and a sister.

[Grace]

Denmark

COPENHAGEN — A Danish soldier was killed in an explosion in the southern Afghan province of Helmand Sunday morning, the Danish military said.

The soldier, who had been carrying out "an operative duty west of the Patrol Base Line," was evacuated by helicopter to the Danish field hospital at Camp Bastion, but "his life could not be saved," the military said in a statement.

It provided no further details of the circumstances around the explosion.

There are some 750 Danish troops in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them in Helmand province under British command.

Denmark has said that 30 of them will be brought home this summer, and that by the second half of 2012, the force will be reduced to about 650 soldiers.

Sunday's death brought to 39 the number of Danish soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan since the deployment began. Two others have died outside of combat, one of a heart attack and the other by suicide.

I can find no further information on this - no name has been posted.

[Grace]

Denmark

Finally got the information.

23-year-old Danish Army Konstabel Alexander Biune was killed in Helmand province on 10th July 2011 by the blast from a roadside bomb. He died in a military field hospital in Camp Bastion after being airlifted by helicopter.

Konstabel Biune served with the Jutland Dragoons based at Holstebro. He joined the army in February 2010.

Head of Danish Battlegroup, Colonel Jens Riis, said of Konstabel Biune: "He trusted himself and everyone felt safe when he took the lead. He lead his mates through perilous areas and did it with a conviction that he was better than anyone. He did until this tragic day for all of us."

Konstabel Biune leaves his parents, his girlfriend and two siblings.