Dollar Bay soldier injured in Afghanistan
A soldier from Upper Michigan is among four Michigan men injured during combat operations in Afghanistan.
Michigan National Guard Public Affairs Assistant Jason Boyd said in addition to the four soldiers from the state injured in the explosion, a downstate soldier was killed.
Injured were: 26–year old Specialist Steven Nelson of Dollar Bay, 29–year old Staff Sgt. Robert Drebenstedt of Charlevoix, 24–year old Specialist William Barnett of Ypsilanti, and 20–year old Private Joshua Colon of Grand Rapids.
Boyd said their conditions are being evaluated for return to, or release from, military duty.
The Michigan National Guard says the injured soldiers were transported from the incident site to military medical facilities at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan for treatment.
25–year–old Army Specialist Kyle McClain of Rochester Hills, died August 1, in Salim Aka, Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense. His mother said he was killed by an improvised explosive device, known as an IED. She said McClain – who had been to Afghanistan and then was in Iraq before being called back to Afghanistan – was on foot patrol when the roadside bomb went off. McClain was assigned to 1433rd Engineer Company, 507th Engineer Battalion, 177th Military Police Brigade in Kalamazoo.
90 members of the 1433rd Engineer Company were deployed in May 2012 to Afghanistan for a one year mobilization.