4/15/2002

SSG Brian Thomas Craig,SSG Justin J. Galewski, SGT Jamie O. Maugans, and SFC Daniel A. Romero were killed and a fifth person was wounded on 15 April 2002. SSG Craig, SSG Galewski, and SGT Maugans were assigned to the 710^th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), 3^rd Ordnance Battalion (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), 52^nd Ordnance Group (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) and SFC Romero was assigned to the 19^th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Colorado Army National Guard.  SSG Craig, SSG Galewski, and SGT Maugans were killed in an explosion while dismantling large caliber (107mm) rockets that had been confiscated from a former Taliban ammunition dump near Kandahar, Afghanistan.  It is suspected that a Taliban booby-trap device may have initiated the explosion.  SSG Craig was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart Medal.  The way in which the soldiers died made identification of all of the remains difficult.  Those that were identified were being buried in individual graves. Commingled remains of the soldiers were interred in a single joint grave in Section 60, Site 7757 in Arlington National Cemetery.

*This bio was researched and authored by SGM Mike R.Vining, USA (Retired). Please send any additional information and/or corrections to the author of this bio by email: sgmmvining@gmail.com. The EOD Wounded Warrior Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of the information in bio.