4/15/2002
SSG Justin Joseph “Ski” Galewski, SSG Brian T. Craig, SGT Jamie O. Maugans, and SFC Daniel A. Romero were killed and a fifth person was wounded on 15 April 2002. SSG Galewski, SSG Craig, and SGT Maugans were assigned to the 710thOrdnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), 3rd Ordnance Battalion (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), 52nd Ordnance Group (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) and SFC Romero was assigned to the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Colorado Army National Guard. SSG Galewski, SSG Craig, 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 Galewski was posthumously awarded 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.