Active Unit News

Fort Carson soldiers injured
By JOHN DIEDRICH- THE GAZETTE
At least 29 Fort Carson soldiers in Iraq were injured in four separate attacks during the past week, military officials said Wednesday. The injuries are not considered life-threatening, officials said. The soldiers are from three Fort Carson units: 10th Combat Support Hospital, 3rd Brigade Combat Team (of 4ID) and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The military generally does not release the names of the injured, but families have been notified. The military disclosed the injured soldiers’ unit in just one of the four attacks, an explosive that blew up under Humvees, injuring six 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldiers July 3 in Ramadi. Other recent attacks involving Fort Carson soldiers: Eighteen soldiers were injured July 3 when three mortars landed inside the perimeter of a base in Balad, where part of 3rd Brigade (4ID) and its attached units are serving, said Capt. Sandra Chavez, a spokeswoman for the brigade in Iraq. Three of the injured belong to the brigade’s 64th Forward Support Battalion, and the rest are with the 10th Combat Hospital, said Maj. Joe Golden, the brigade’s rear detachment commander. Most of the injuries are superficial shrapnel wounds. Two are considered serious, Chavez said. Three soldiers from 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Brigade were injured Monday by a rocketpropelled grenade near Kirkuk, Golden said. Two of the injuries are serious, and the soldiers have been taken to a hospital for treatment, he said. Two soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 3rd ACR, were injured Tuesday in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Ramadi, said Lt. Dan Lawrence, an officer with the regiment’s rear detachment. The number of attacks and injuries isn’t surprising to Lt. Col. Toby Green, former commander of 2 nd Squadron, who recently left Iraq to prepare for another assignment. When he was there, the squadron’s 1,100 soldiers were attacked once or twice a day with small arms fire, rocketpropelled grenades and other explosives, usually without injury. "These are just ones that resulted in casualties," he said of the recent attacks. "The ones you don’t know about are the ones where people don’t get hurt." Also this week, U.S. Central Command said soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment seized a weapons cache of 400 to 500 rocket-propelled grenades Tuesday from a vehicle at a checkpoint between Ramadi and Al Asad. Four Iraqi men riding in the vehicle were detained, the military release said.

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