Air Force Sergeant Is First Reported Casualty
Thursday, October 11, 2001
MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. ? An Air Force sergeant was killed in a heavy equipment accident in the Arabian Peninsula, becoming the first announced death in Operation Enduring Freedom, military officials said Thursday.
Master Sgt. Evander Earl Andrews, who died Wednesday, was assigned to the 366th Civil Engineer Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. He was originally from Solon, Maine, a town in the western part of the state, the base said.
Maj. Eldon Hardwick from the Air National Guard headquarters in Augusta, Maine, said the accident happened in Aludeid, Qatar, and involved a forklift.
Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a defense department spokesman at MacDill, said Andrews was at a "forward deployed location" supporting the campaign when the incident happened.
A woman who answered the telephone Thursday morning at the Andrews home in Mountain Home said Andrews' wife, Judy, was not saying anything but would be meeting with her minister and might have something to say later. The woman did not identify herself.
While officials at the Maine Guard were familiar with the incident because it involved someone from their state, they said Andrews was not a Guardsman but a regular active duty officer.
In addition to Andrews, a soldier was seriously injured Wednesday in Turkey after being trapped between two trucks, military officials said.
Officials did not disclose the soldier's name, the extent of his injuries or the exact location of the accident.
He was airlifted to the military hospital in Germany.
"U.S. medical personnel on the scene performed initial lifesaving care," after which the soldier was taken to a U.S. base in Incirlik, Turkey, said Maj. Brad Lowell, a U.S. Central Command spokesman at MacDill.
The soldier was in serious but stable condition Thursday at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, officials said.
Thursday, October 11, 2001
MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. ? An Air Force sergeant was killed in a heavy equipment accident in the Arabian Peninsula, becoming the first announced death in Operation Enduring Freedom, military officials said Thursday.
Master Sgt. Evander Earl Andrews, who died Wednesday, was assigned to the 366th Civil Engineer Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. He was originally from Solon, Maine, a town in the western part of the state, the base said.
Maj. Eldon Hardwick from the Air National Guard headquarters in Augusta, Maine, said the accident happened in Aludeid, Qatar, and involved a forklift.
Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a defense department spokesman at MacDill, said Andrews was at a "forward deployed location" supporting the campaign when the incident happened.
A woman who answered the telephone Thursday morning at the Andrews home in Mountain Home said Andrews' wife, Judy, was not saying anything but would be meeting with her minister and might have something to say later. The woman did not identify herself.
While officials at the Maine Guard were familiar with the incident because it involved someone from their state, they said Andrews was not a Guardsman but a regular active duty officer.
In addition to Andrews, a soldier was seriously injured Wednesday in Turkey after being trapped between two trucks, military officials said.
Officials did not disclose the soldier's name, the extent of his injuries or the exact location of the accident.
He was airlifted to the military hospital in Germany.
"U.S. medical personnel on the scene performed initial lifesaving care," after which the soldier was taken to a U.S. base in Incirlik, Turkey, said Maj. Brad Lowell, a U.S. Central Command spokesman at MacDill.
The soldier was in serious but stable condition Thursday at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, officials said.
Facebook
Twitter