In Memoriam

The Defense Department last week identified the following American military personnel killed in Afghanistan or who died at a military hospital of their injuries:

Faoa L. Apineru, 31, of Yorba Linda, staff sergeant, Marine Corps Reserve. Three years after he was wounded and a year after he died, the Department of Defense on Wednesday formally recognized Apineru as a casualty of the war in Iraq. Apineru died July 2, 2007, at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, where he was being treated for traumatic brain injuries suffered May 15, 2005, when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. After his death, the initial medical examiner concluded that Apineru did not die from injuries suffered during his deployment, but a subsequent opinion by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology indicated that his death was a result of injuries suffered in Iraq. Apineru was assigned to Headquarters Company, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division in San Bruno, Calif.

Seteria L. Brown, 22, of Orlando, Fla.; specialist, Army. Brown died of a gunshot wound to the chest July 25 in a noncombat-related incident in Sharana in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province, south of Kabul. The Department of Defense said her death was under investigation. Brown was assigned to the 62nd Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade at Ft. Hood Texas.

 James A. McHale, 31, of Fairfield, Mont.; sergeant, Army. McHale died Wednesday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., of injuries suffered July 22 when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb in Taji, Iraq, north of Baghdad. He was assigned to the 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division in Baumholder, Germany.

Comments

[shannon]

Boy, it makes me really angry and sad when the Department of Defense refuses to acknowledge that soldiers are dying of injuries years later, but they're not combat related. All to get out of paying survivors' benefits, I'm sure.