KABUL, Afghanistan — A chaplain who died in Afghanistan this week was the first Army clergyman killed in action since Vietnam, military officials said Thursday.

Army Capt. Dale Goetz of the 4th Infantry Division was among five U.S. soldiers killed when their armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Monday. Goetz was in a convoy traveling from one forward operating base to another, where he counseled soldiers. Witnesses said the vehicle was Humvee.

Before Goetz, the last Army chaplain to die in action was Phillip Nichols, who was killed by a concealed enemy explosive in Vietnam in October of 1970, said Chaplain Carleton Birch, a spokesman for the Army chief of chaplains.

Goetz, 43, is survived by his wife and three sons, all under the age of 10, all from White, S.D. The family is currently residing at Fort Carson, Colo.

Geotz was the pastor at the First Baptist Church in White before joining the Army in 2000.

Goetz and his family recently joined High Country Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, where Fort Carson is located, the Argus-Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., reported.

Officials said Goetz had hitched a ride on a resupply convoy when he was killed.

The Army has more than 2,800 chaplains, including those in the Guard and Reserve. More than 400 are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Birch said chaplains are considered noncombatants and don’t carry weapons, but they are accompanied by a chaplain’s assistant, a soldier who is armed.

A chaplain’s assistant, Staff Sgt. Christopher Stout of Worthville, Ky., was killed in Afghanistan in July, Birch said.

Chaplains don’t go on combat patrols but do go onto battlefields to conduct services and counsel soldiers, Birch said.

“Many of those places where they travel are very dangerous,” he said.

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

United States Army Sgt. Charles P. Whitler will be buried Sept. 2 in his hometown of Cloverport, Ky.

Local news reporting: whas11.com

In early November 1950, Whitler was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, occupying a defensive position near the town of Unsan by the Kuryong River known as the “Camel’s Head.” Two enemy elements attacked the U.S. forces, collapsing their perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. Whitler’s unit was involved in fighting which devolved into hand-to-hand combat around the 3rd Battalion’s command post. Almost 400 men were reported missing or killed in action following the battle.

In late November 1950, a U.S. soldier captured during the battle of Unsan reported during his debriefing that he and nine American soldiers were moved to a house near the battlefield. The POWs were taken to an adjacent field and shot. Three of the 10 Americans survived, though one later died. The surviving solider provided detailed information on the incident location.

Analysts from DPMO developed case leads with information spanning more than 58 years. Through interviews with eyewitnesses, experts evaluated circumstances surrounding Whitler’s captivity and death and researched wartime documentation of his loss.

In May 2004, a joint U.S.-North Korean team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, excavated a mass grave near the “Camel’s Head.” An elderly North Korean man reported he had witnessed the death of seven or eight U.S. soldiers near that location and provided the team with a general description of the burial site.

The excavation team recovered human remains and other personal artifacts, ultimately leading to the identification of seven soldiers from that site, one of whom was Whitler.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Whitler’s sister and niece – in the identification.

More than 2,000 servicemen died as prisoners of war during the Korean War. With this accounting, 8,022 service members still remain missing from the conflict.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1420.

Wichita Falls, TX the itinerary for SPC Alexis V Maldonado is as follows:

Home arrival: Sat. Aug. 28, 2010 at Sheppards AFB at 10:11 AM.

Funeral and interment: Aug. 30, 2010 at Sacred  Heart Church, 150o 9th St. at 10:00AM.

Interment to follow at Sacred Heart Cemetery at Santa Fe St near Cumberland St. 

(Left to right) U.S. Army 1st Lt. Matthew Machacek, from the Texas Agribusiness Development Team, Michéle Flournoy, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and U.S. Army Maj. William Davis, also from the Texas ADT, pose for a photo while holding the Texas A&M University flag, Aug. 8, at Forward Operating Base Ghazni.

WASHINGTON – The Defense Department is as committed as ever to bringing home thousands of U.S. service members who remain missing from the Korean War and Cold War conflicts, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy said, Aug. 26.

“This issue has the full and unequivocal support of this secretary and this nation,” Michele Flournoy said at the Korean War/Cold War Annual Government Briefing on the accounting of missing and imprisoned servicemembers held in Arlington, Va. Ensuring resources are available “to have the fullest possible accounting” is a top priority of the department, she said.

As many as 5,400 Americans may still be in North Korea, and another 900 may be in the demilitarized zone that has divided North and South Korea since an armistice in 1953 halted three years of fighting there, Flournoy said. Because there has never been a peace treaty to officially end the war, those areas remain inaccessible to the department’s search and recovery teams, she said.

American search teams were allowed into North Korea under tight control between 1996 and 2005, and recovered the remains of 225 U.S. servicemembers, 81 of whom have been identified, Flournoy said. Rising international tensions with North Korea over its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and the sinking of a South Korean navy ship this year have ended those operations, the undersecretary said.

Further complicating efforts, Flournoy said, are ongoing reports that “tiny” numbers of veterans may have defected to the north, raising concerns that they are being held as prisoners of war. Department officials have spent years trying to determine if the reports are true, she said.

“We have no evidence that U.S. servicemembers are being held against their will in North Korea,” she said. “But we cannot tell you in many cases the fate of our missing service members.”

Despite the challenges, she said, “We will get through this difficult period and do everything in our power to resume recovery operations and bring our service members home.”

Flournoy called the issue of missing or imprisoned servicemembers “surely the most painful legacy of war,” and said the department is committed to keeping its search and recovery staff fully resourced. Congress, also, has shown its willingness to provide for the recovery of POWs/MIAs by including in the current budget a directive that 200 new staff members be added to the effort each year until 2015.

Meanwhile, the United States has had increasing collaboration with Russia and China to recover missing service members, and currently is evaluating remains found from a plane crash in the China Sea reported by Chinese officials, Flournoy said.

The department usually recovers the remains of between 80 and 85 missing servicemembers each year, she said.

Flournoy told the audience that their work gives hope to the 200,000 military members currently deployed in war zones. POW/MIA work “is not an artifact of the distant past,” she said. “These issues remain urgent, and our commitment to leaving no one behind is as vital and real as it has ever been.”

Search and recovery techniques have vastly improved in recent years, and the department’s teams are the best in the world, Flournoy said. “No one is more dedicated to the mission,” she added.

“Your loved ones gave their lives for this country,” she said. “We honor their sacrifices, and we are committed to their recovery.”

SPC Alexis Vicente Maldonado, 20, of Wichita Falls, TX

SPC Alexis Vicente Maldonado, 20, of Wichita Falls, died Saturday, August 21, 2010 while serving his country in Afghanistan and is expected to return to the North Texas region later this week. Once arrangements have been announced we will update this article.

On August 21, 2010 SPC Maldonado’s life was tragically ended while on a route clearance patrol on highway one, in Southern Afghanistan. While moving east along highway one an enemy ambush struck the rear vehicle where SPC Maldonado was a gunner.

SPC Alexis Maldonado was born on July 16, 1990 in Wichita Falls, Texas to Jesse and Alicia Maldonado. After graduating high school SPC Maldonado became the proud father of a baby boy named Isaiah on August 6, 2008.

While continuing to be a dedicated father SPC Maldonado enlisted in the United States Army on October 3, 2009. SPC Maldonado went to the 35th Engineer Battalion at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri where he completed OSUT training for basic training and AIT. At the completion of his training he was awarded the MOS of 21B, Combat Engineer, and assigned to Fort Hood, Texas where he would eventually be assigned to the 20th Engineer Battalion, 510th Clearance Company, and finally 3rd platoon. While assigned to 3rd Platoon SPC Maldonado went on to complete many individual, squad, and platoon level trainings to include Combat Lifesaver Class and the R2C2 operator classes. In September of 2009 SPC Maldonado deployed with the rest of the 20th Engineer Battalion to the National Training Center in California to complete the unit’s readiness training, prior to block leave and the Battalion’s upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. SPC Maldonado and his platoon always performed above the standard receiving many accommodations from the officials at the training center.

Upon returning to Fort Hood SPC Maldonado had yet another hurdle to overcome before his company’s deployment. The entire 510th Clearance Company was hit with tragedy when their friends, peers, and battle buddies were wounded on November 5th at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Site.

On January 23, 2010 SPC Maldonado deployed with the 20th Engineer Battalion, 510th Clearance Company, 3rd Platoon. After spending two months at Kandahar Airfield completing training and helping to build his platoon vehicle force, the 510th moved to Forward Operating Base Ramrod. While stationed at FOB Ramrod SPC Maldonado completed over 100 route clearance missions with his platoon. SPC Maldonado would serve as a primary .50 cal machine gunner and a RG31-MK2 driver; continually displaying the Army Values in everything he did.

SPC Maldonado had aspirations of eventually ETS’ing from the Army and using the skills and experience he gained to further his education at UTI in Dallas, Texas, in order to study to become a Mechanic. SPC Maldonado could always be found in his down time either in his room, head nodding back and forth to his music, or in the gym grinding away with any weight he could get his hands on.

Whether it was trying to build his fitness in the gym or his ability to bring out not only the best in himself, but those around him, SPC Maldonado was an exemplary Soldier and a person in everything he did. He was a loving and dedicated father, who enjoyed spending all his time with his son. He will never be forgotten and greatly missed by all that knew him.

SPC Maldonado’s awards and decorations include the following: Bronze Star Medal; Purple Heart; Good Conduct Metal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Army Service Ribbon; Overseas Service Ribbon; NATO Medal and the Combat Action Badge.

Alexis enjoyed listening to music, wrestling and playing video games.
He was preceded in death by his great-grandparents, David and Maria Maldonado.

Survivors include his parents, Jesse Maldonado and wife, Linda of Wichita Falls and Alicia Maldonado and husband, Keith Hastings of Wichita Falls; grandparents, Robert “Bob” and Irene Butterfield of Wichita Falls; Frank and Rosie Rodriguez of Wichita Falls; Ruben and Ruth Castillo of Princeton, Illinois; David Hernandez Everette; great-grandmother, Jesusa Garcia Aguirre; fiancé, Baronica Chapa; son, Isaiah Malachi Maldonado; brother, Brad Newlin and wife, Tia of Wichita Falls; brother, Sergio Maldonado and wife, Mykeli; sister, Aleksi Marie Maldonado of Wichita Falls; uncles, Robert Butterfield and wife, Hope, David Everette, Jr. and wife, Rita and Roy Castillo, all of Wichita Falls; aunts, Michelle Castaneda and Cristina Rodriguez, both of Wichita Falls; also many nieces, nephews and cousins.

“All gave some, some gave all”

Resource: Owens & Brumley Funeral Home & Cremation Center · Wichita Falls, TX 940-322-3181

Now, that I’m back after a few weeks of rest and relaxation, let me begin with a story of someone Doing the Right Thing.

LCpl. Dustin Tunnell, recently attended the funeral of one of his uncles.  After the ceremonies an elderly man walked up to LCpl. Dustin Tunnell to thank him for his service to our country and admire his uniform.  The elderly man, as it turns out is LCrpl Dustin Tunnell’s great-uncle, began to recall how the uniform was a contributing factor in his decision to join the USMC, but at the time not all Marines were issued a dress uniform since, they were immediately shipped out to war as soon as they completed basic training.

LCpl. Dustin Tunnell began thinking about how could he obtain a uniform for the Marine veteran he met at the funeral.  He talked to some of his buddies and they decided to start a group page on FaceBook to solicit funds to purchase a dress uniform for the veteran.

Contributions began pouring in from people everywhere.  They quickly obtained the $730 needed to make the purchase.  They then prepared for a way to present this great gift.  After presenting him with his new dress blues they had to have a group picture.  After all what is the purpose of being a part of the few, the proud, the Marines; if not a photo-op in dress blues?

I’ve had the pleasure of asking the Marine a few questions and below, was his responses.

USF Q:  What motivated you to do this?

LCpl. D. Tunnell A:

I did not do this for any personal recognition. To be honest, the way this started was at an uncle of mine’s funeral in Tennessee. My uncle John “Curtis” Sammons passed away on April 28, 2010. His funeral was on April 30. I wore my Dress Blue uniform to the funeral to honor my uncle who served in the Army during Vietnam. At the funeral Bobby and I started talking about the Corps and how he served during WWII and I’m serving today.

As Robert and I were talking, he brought up that he had never received a Dress Blue uniform, and it was 1 of 2 reasons he joined the Corps. During WWII, the US devoted a lot of funds toward the war, and therefore stopped issuing the Blues uniform and only issued the Service (green uniform) until after the war was over. Bobby brought it up several times how proud he was of me, the Corps, and how nice the Dress Blue uniform is. He joined the Corps and not another branch for two reasons, 1 being for our Dress Blue uniform, and the second because he wanted to go to nice tropical places. Robert also gave me a copy of his memoir that he wrote for the family, as his daughter had requested it. Bobby told me that he did not know what medals he was awarded, and that he tried to gain that information with no luck, but he wanted it for his son and daughter.

USF Q:  How to did you plan for this?

LCpl. D. Tunnell A:

On my drive back to Cherry Point, where I am currently stationed, I kept thinking about what he had told me and how happy he was to see me in my Dress Blues. I decided that a hero like him should not go any longer without our nicest uniform and made up my decision. I called my dad and told him that I would need some help from the family finding out his measurements because I was going to purchase and present a Dress Blue uniform to Bobby. Dad was kind of confused about the idea, as he knows that the uniforms are expensive, but due to never having served, he has no idea the pride we have.

He brought up the idea of possibly trying to take donations to cover part of the cost so it would not all come out of my pocket. When I arrived back to Cherry Point, I brought up the idea to my fellow Marines and everyone was very enthusiastic and excited about my idea. I decided to make a Facebook event with the idea. At this point, I was hoping to receive maybe a small portion of the cost, but anything would help due to the cost of the uniform and the pay that we receive. I made the event on May 9 of this year, and in less than 24 hours I had already received $105 in donations. I was very shocked at the interest in this. When I realized that this was interesting to people, I decided to start posting it on different Marine Corps pages, and military pages.

USF Q:  What were your challenges?

LCpl. D. Tunnell A:

During this time, I could not figure out how I wanted to present this uniform to Bobby. Robert Webster is a very humble individual, as he even stated at the presentation when asked to speak he said “I just wanted to help my country.” To this day he says the true heroes are the ones who died, and the Navy Corpsmen. I wanted it to be something special for him, and something he would never forget, but nothing that would upset him. I considered several options, such as taking him to a recruiting station and presenting it there, or simply arriving at his house with the uniform. Then I thought of Independence Day coming up in the near future. I knew this was less than two months away, and not knowing any of his sizes, or even what medals and awards he rated, this would be very hard to accomplish.

I eventually got in contact with two individuals from Pepsi, who coordinate the Independence Day events every year at Freedom Hall. They informed me that the events would partake on July 3 this year due to the 4th being on Sunday. They were very excited about my idea, and so we sat down and discussed how this would take place. I was also able to gain all of the information regarding his service, including all of his campaigns, both times he was wounded, and even a picture that was taken on January 20, 1942 while he was in boot camp. He was very happy to receive this information, and got many laughs out of the picture that he has not seen in so many years.

USF Q:  What did you learn about Bobby?

News Clipping of Webster

LCpl. D. Tunnell A:

Bobby, along with a few other good friends joined the Marine Corps on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He shipped for boot camp on January 13, 1942 to MCRD San Diego, California. His dates of service are from January 13, 1942 until December 14, 1945 when he was honorably discharged as a Sergeant. He was assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion, 25th Regiment, 4th Marine Division as a machine gunner. He was wounded in action on Saipan on June 15, 1944 and then again on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. His unit participated in 4 campaigns during WWII before it was disbanded due to heavy casualties at Iwo Jima. These campaigns consisted of the Battle of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands campaign, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. They were in the first wave on Saipan and Iwo Jima and third at Tinian. The battalion played a critical role in the seizure of Hill 382 (”Turkey Knob”) in an area that Marines on Iwo Jima called the “Meat Grinder.” They were awarded two presidential unit citations for their campaigns, 1 being at Iwo Jima.

USF Q:  Why was this, the right thing to do?

LCpl. D. Tunnell A:

I remember being so extremely proud after finishing the crucible and receiving my Eagle, Globe and Anchor and welcomed into the Marine Corps and then walking across the parade deck at Parris Island, at graduation. This is the only thing that I could compare to the way it made me feel having the opportunity to do something like this for such a wonderful man like Robert Webster. I’m honestly not sure which event made me feel better, because becoming a Marine was a great feeling, but it’s hard to compare anything to giving great joy to another individual.

The other marines who participated in this as well agreed that we all felt great about getting the opportunity to be part of this. Another very nice outcome of all of this was that it brought a lot of family together.

USF Q:  What did you learn from this experience?

LCpl. D. Tunnell A:

His daughter, her husband, and her daughter all flew in from Texas to witness this. His son was able to attend, one of his brothers, and it just brought a lot of the family together, some of which I had never met until this day. My cousin just told me the other day, that after we left his house Monday evening, as he was hanging up his uniform, he said “I never thought I would have this.” I really wish more heroes like Robert Webster could have the opportunity to receive the uniform and recognition that they deserve.

The Marines who presented the Dress Blue uniform were:

Cpl Lyle Marston from Camp Lejeune, NC attached to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit
Cpl Raymond Ortiz from Cherry Point, NC attached to the 6th Special Security Communications Team
LCpl Colin Wine from Cherry Point, NC attached to the 6th Special Security Communications Team
LCpl Michael Wilson from Cherry Point, NC attached to the 6th Special Security Communications Team
LCpl Dustin Tunnell from Cherry Point, NC attached to the 6th Special Security Communications Team

Update:  The remainder $150 that they received in donations was donated to the Wounded Warrior Project – http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/ – on Robert Webster’s behalf.Three weeks after LCpl Tunnell brought the greatest joy to another, he and his partner Shelia Goodson, gave birth to Alannah Jane Tunnell, a beautiful, healthy, bouncing baby little girl.

Please join me in saluting this young Marine for Doing the Right Thing.

MOH grave site and dog park

In the town of Ventura, California a lush, well-manicured hillside patch of green on Main Street just a few blocks east of downtown Ventura has pine, thickets of overgrown junipers and a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean and Ventura Pier.

The small patch of land is the grave site of a 1860s Army hero awarded the Medal of Honor. Today it is now a popular dog park with dog poop soiling the sacred ground.

Pvt. James Sumner, who was awarded the nation’s highest military honor for gallant actions after a band of Apache Indians kidnapped a settler’s child, died in 1912 and he was buried in what was then St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Most of the flat grave markers have been hauled away, but a few dozen markers still pepper the 7-acre Cemetery Memorial Park that was home to about 3,000 permanent residents.

Retired Marine Sgt. Craig “Gunny” Donor, who served two tours in Vietnam and is a state captain for the Patriot Guard Riders is bent on getting the soldier’s remains moved.

Army records show Sumner was a 28-year-old immigrant from London who led the 1869 chase after the kidnapped child into a remote canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona. There was an ambush and a fierce firefight, but Sumner held off attackers until reinforcements arrived.

President Ulysses S. Grant awarded Sumner the Medal of Honor in 1870. Donor believes the medal is buried with him.

Sumner died in 1912 at age 72. He never married and there are no heirs, Donor said. “I’m trying to get him moved to Bakersfield National Cemetery. He needs to be moved to a place of respect. Cemeteries are solemn places,” said Donor.

But Ventura leaders have so far balked at moving Sumner. “We are treating him pretty darn well, except for the poop,” parks and recreation commissioner Sharon Troll told the Ventura County Star.

The commission voted July 21 to postpone for two months Donor’s request to unearth Sumner. Park commissioners have told Donor they’re committed to a long-delayed effort to commemorate the area pioneers and military dead in the park.

“He has no family, no one else to stand up for him, except for his brothers and sister in arms,” Donor said.

Editor’s note:

Thank God for people like “Gunny” Donor for doing the right thing.

If you wish to express your views to the City Manager of Ventura here is their contact information.

City Hall
501 Poli Street, PO Box 99
Ventura, California 93002-0099
(805) 654-7740
email: citymanager@cityofventura.net

Resource: excerpts from AP

Specialist 2nd Class Jarod Newlove

Logar provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa told Reuters that his captors had probably dumped the body after the sailor died from wounds received in the incident that led to his capture.

“The body was spotted by villagers,” he said.

A U.S. defense official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier also reported the recovery and it comes two days after officials announced they had the remains of the first sailor.

The two U.S. Navy service members went missing on Friday after failing to return in a vehicle they had taken from their compound in Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Saturday.

The alliance had no immediate comment on the latest report.

On Sunday, the Taliban said they were holding prisoner one of the two sailors, who had strayed into territory controlled by the insurgents just south of the capital, and that the other had been killed.

ISAF scrambled helicopters and planes to look for the pair after they went missing, but officials have declined to give anything but scant details since, prompting speculation that the two had been acting outside the chain of command.

Leaflets depicting photos of the men were distributed in Logar province where the two went missing, less than 100 km (60 miles) south of Kabul and announcements on local radio stations offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to a rescue.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location that the group’s leadership would decide later on the fate of the second sailor.

Resource: AP

Arlington National Cemetery

Officials who ran Arlington National Cemetery for nearly two decades before hundreds of unmarked and mismarked graves were discovered last month have been served with subpoenas to testify Thursday before a Senate subcommittee investigating contracting irregularities, according to the committee’s chairwoman.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on Contracting Oversight will require John C. Metzler, 62, and Thurman Higginbotham, 68, the cemetery’s longtime superintendent and second in command, to testify at a hearing on Thursday morning, said Maria Speiser, spokeswoman for committee chair Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Neither man has spoken publicly since Army Secretary John McHugh last month announced that the Army’s Inspector General had found more than 100 unmarked graves, scores of grave sites with headstones that are not recorded on cemetery maps, and at least four burial urns that had been unearthed and dumped in an area where excess grave dirt is kept.

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that it found problems with another 130 graves between one of Arlington cemetery’s least-known sections and one of its most popular. In a historic but little visited area of the cemetery, three rows of graves of freed slaves and black Civil War soldiers are missing. The 70 graves are listed on the cemetery’s master map, but on the ground there are no headstones marking them.

Steps from President John F. Kennedy’s grave and memorial, there are more then 60 discrepancies between the cemetery’s map and what appears on the ground in a prestigious area where eight Supreme Court justices are buried. In many cases — including the plot where former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and a Vietnam War veteran are buried — two of the VIPs are buried where the map notes just one. Another grave that appears occupied on the map has no headstone. And seven graves that appear empty on the map are filled.

The Post also reported that thousands of pages of internal records and interviews with dozens of current and former Army employees reveal that the Army has launched multiple investigations into Arlington over the years.

Not only did they turn up chronic problems with record-keeping, but they also revealed a dysfunctional management structure that operated with limited and fractured oversight and a contracting system that appeared to operate outside the normal structure for the federal government. Repeated attempts to correct the situation fell short.

Congressional investigators are examining how far up the chain of command responsibility should rest as well as why, among other issues, cemetery officials frittered away at least $5 million for computer upgrades with little to show for it.

Metzler was harshly reprimanded by the Army and retired July 2. Higginbotham, 68, had been placed on paid administrative leave and has also since retired, effective July 3.

By Aaron C. Davis  | WashingtonPost.com

2nd Class Justin McNeley

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor and the identity of another sailor listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN). The announcement resulted from a July 23 incident in Logar province, Afghanistan, while the sailors were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley, 30, of Wheatridge, Colo., died from wounds sustained from the July 23 incident. Coalition Forces recovered his body July 25 after an extensive search. He was assigned to Assault Craft Unit One (ACU-1), San Diego.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, 25, of Renton, Wash., is listed as DUSTWUN from the July 23 incident. Search and recovery efforts are ongoing, and the incident is under investigation.

Specialist 2nd Class Jarod Newlove

ENCINITAS – One of two U.S. sailors missing in Afghanistan is the son of an Encinitas deputy fire marshal.

Deputy Fire Marshal George McNeley sent an e-mail to city workers and fire officials today saying his son, Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley, was killed in action, Encinitas Mayor Dan Dalager told the San Diego Union- Tribune.

The Taliban has claimed they killed a U.S. sailor and kidnapped another on Friday. A massive manhunt has been underway since the sailors went missing.

“People are just pretty much in shock,” Dalager said. “I know our firefighters are already working on some things to help the family.”

George McNeley has worked for the Encinitas Fire Department for five years, Dalager said.

Justin McNeley, was stationed in San Diego before his deployment, but served with a different unit in Afghanistan.

McNeley is believed to have driven into Taliban territory Friday along with Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale.

The two Navy personnel were in the eastern province of Logar, after an armored sport utility vehicle was seen driving into a Taliban-held area. NATO officials were unable to say what they were doing in such a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban have said previously that they killed one of the two men in a firefight and captured the other.

Jim Kerr, a Colorado legislator, said the sailor killed was his wife’s nephew, Justin McNeley, 30. He said the family learned of his death Monday. He said McNeley’s mother is in Kingman, Arizona, but declined to give her name.

Kerr told The Denver Post that McNeley, a noncommissioned officer and father of two sons, was due to return to the U.S. in August.

The Taliban have said the captured sailor is in a “safe place” where he will not be found.

In a statement, the NATO-led command said the body was recovered Sunday after an extensive search and that the coalition “holds the captors accountable for the safety and proper treatment of our missing service member.”

Hundreds of fliers, with reprinted photos of the two sailors, have been distributed throughout Logar province where NATO troops were stopping vehicles, searching them and those inside. NATO has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the surviving sailor’s location.

In another incident, a soldier from San Diego was among those killed Saturday by a roadside bomb attack on their vehicle in Afghanistan.

They are identified as 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Conrad A. Mora of San Diego, Calif.; 23-year-old Sgt. Daniel Lim of Cypress, Calif.; 27-year-old Spc. Joseph A. Bauer, 27, of Cincinnati, Ohio; and 25-year-old Pfc. Andrew L. Hand of Enterprise, Ala.

The four were assigned to 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Fires Brigade at the Army base near Tacoma, Wash.

The Pentagon also released the names Monday of two high-ranking Camp Pendleton-based Marines killed in combat last week in Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. Mario D. Carazo, 41, of Springfield, Ohio, and Maj. James M. Weis, 37, of Toms River, N.J., were killed Thursday in Helmand Province, according to the Department of Defense.

They were members of Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the servicemen’s deaths “tragic losses for this country.”

“They devoted themselves to serving our nation with honor and integrity, and their selfless sacrifices will never be forgotten,” the governor said.

Resource: sandiego6.com