A grim record for Fort Carson marched on, as the 16th and 17th soldiers from the base died in combat in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Tuesday.
In the bloodiest month of fighting for Fort Carson soldiers since 2001, one soldier died Sunday, one Saturday and two Friday.
The 17 deaths in October surpasses July 2005, when 12 soldiers from the Colorado Springs-area army base were killed in Iraq.
The base had no official comment on the milestone, said spokesman Randy Tisor.
“Each and every one of them is a big loss,” he said. “We take every one of them pretty hard around here.”
Pfc. Devin J. Michel, 19, of Stockton, Ill., was killed Saturday when his unit was hit by an improvised bomb in Zhari province.
Sunday, Sgt. Eduviges G. Wolf, 24, of Hawthorne, Calif., died when a rocket-propelled grenade hit a military vehicle in Kunar province, the Pentagon said.
Friday, a roadside bomb killed Spec. Eric N. Lembke, 25, of Tampa, Fla., and Pfc. Kimble A. Han, 30, of Lehi, Utah.
The weekend deaths brought the number of Fort Carson soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to 287.
Currently more than 3,400 Fort Carson soldiers are deployed to the two war fronts, Tisor said.
On Oct. 15, a roadside bomb killed four Fort Carson soldiers in Kandahar province: 34-year-old Sgt. Glen H. Stivison Jr. of Blairsville, Pa.; 28-year-old Spec. Jesus O. Flores of La Mirada, Calif.; 33-year-old Spec. Daniel C. Lawson of Deerfield Beach, Fla.; and 19-year-old Pfc. Brandon M. Styer of Lancaster, Pa.
On Oct. 4, Spec. Kevin O. Hill, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was killed in an ambush near Dehanna.
On Oct. 3, eight Fort Carson soldiers were killed in a gun battle to defend two remote mountain outposts near the Pakistan border, marking the heaviest single-day loss to American forces in 16 months.
Killed that day were Sgt. Vernon Martin, 25, of Savannah, Ga.; Sgt. Justin Gallegos, 27, of Tucson; Sgt. Michael Scusa, 22, of Villas, N.J.; Sgt. Joshua Kirk, 30, of South Portland, Maine; Spec. Stephan Mace, 21, of Lovetsville, Va.; Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson, 22, of Reno, Nev.; Sgt. Joshua Hardt, 24, of Applegate, Calif.; and Spec. Christopher Griffin, 24, of Kincheloe, Mich.
Previously, Fort Carson’s highest number of casualties in a single incident was five, a total reached once in 2007 and twice in 2008.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
