In Memoriam

[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.

[Grace]

France

5 French soldiers killed by bomb blast

Five French soldiers have been killed in a bombing in Kapisa province, eastern Afghanistan today 13th July 2011. Four other French soldiers were seriously injured in the attack.

The French troops were guarding a meeting of local leaders in Joybar village when a terrorist detonated a bomb nearby.

More information to follow.

[Grace]

12 July 2011

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

Lance Cpl. Robert S. Greniger, 21, of Greenfield, Minn., died July 12 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.