Two Service Members From Aberdeen Killed by Roadside Explosive in Afghanistan
Two Aberdeen residents were among the U.S. service members killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday in Afghanistan.
Capt. Andrew Patrick Ross, 29, and Sgt. 1st Class Eric Michael Emond, 39, were fatally injured by the blast. Staff Sgt. Dylan J. Elchin, a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania, was also killed.
The victims were traveling in an armored vehicle when the bomb went off in Ghazni province. It was the deadliest attack this year on U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Three other service members and an American contractor were injured in the explosion. The Taliban claimed the attack.
Ross was originally from Lexington, Virginia. Emond was from Boston. Both men were assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, according to information from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Aberdeen Mayor Robbie Farrell lives on the same road as the Ross family. He said the street is also home to the wife and children of another slain service member.
“So to speak, we are bracketed now by young war widows and it is weighing heavily on my mind,” Farrell said. “Our area will continue to feel this loss until (...) these conflicts are resolved.”
Names of the personnel killed in the bombing were released by the Pentagon about 4 p.m. on Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, whose district includes Fort Bragg, issued a statement offering “sincere condolences” to the families of the victims.
“We pray for God’s peace, comfort and healing and for full recoveries for the other Americans who were injured,” Hudson said in the statement. “Our community has lost heroes who will be deeply missed, but never forgotten.”
Several service members from Moore County have been killed in recent years while deployed in Afghanistan.
Chris Harris, a 25-year-old from Jackson Springs, was one of two 82nd Airborne Division members killed in an attack on a NATO convoy near Kandahar in August 2017. That attack was also claimed by the Taliban.
In 2015, Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, was killed in a shooting at a Camp Antonik checkpoint in Helmand province. Two individuals dressed as members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces attacked the checkpoint, fatally wounding Sibley, an airman who had recently bought a home in Pinebluff, and another service member.
Staff Sgt. Justin C. Marquez, a 25-year-old from Aberdeen, was killed in 2012 while on patrol in Wardak province. Marquez and another soldier died from “wounds caused by small-arms fire,” military officials said at the time.
Tech Sgt. John W. Brown and Staff Sgt. Andy Harvell were among the 38 people who died after a helicopter was shot down with a rocket-propelled grenade near Kabul in 2011. Brown, 33, lived in Pinehurst and Harvell, 26, lived in Southern Pines.
Military officials said that attack was carried out by the Taliban. No one survived the downing, which marked the largest loss of American lives tied to a single attack during Operation Enduring Freedom, the 13-year combat mission that concluded in 2014.
In September 2010, Sgt. 1st Class Ronald A. Grider, a Carthage resident, was killed during combat in Konduz province. He died on his 30th birthday.
Capt. David J. Thompson of Carthage died after being shot by an Afghan interpreter in February 2010. A dispute over pay allegedly led the interpreter, a U.S. citizen who was working as a contractor for the army, to fatally shoot Thompson, 39, and a 19-year-old specialist in Wardak province
About 14,000 American forces remain in Afghanistan as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Many are there to provide support and consultation to Afghan forces, who contend with regular attacks by insurgents.
Hours after the American convoy was bombed on Tuesday, a battle between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents left at least 30 civilians dead in Kabul. Taliban fighters are believed to have staged the attack, according to The Associated Press.