ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: Global Post
1August2010 9:24pmPDT
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: COMBAT OUTPOST COUTU, Afghanistan � The stomach turning �thud� of an exploding homemade bomb on a recent hot July afternoon blew into the small villages and across the wheat fields that make up Lima Company�s area of operations in northern Marjah.
Marines based at Combat Outpost Coutu had left several hours earlier on a routine patrol to link up with and resupply troops from another small base nearby.
Thomas Henderson, a Navy corpsman, or medic, was walking in the middle of the patrol. He had just joined Lima Company that morning, replacing another corpsman who had been shot in the arm and leg three days earlier.
As Henderson�s patrol approached a bottleneck on their route, a man hiding in thick foliage nearby watched quietly. Using a wire connected to a directional anti-personnel mine, the man detonated the charge in the middle of the patrol � where high-value Americans, like commanders or corpsman, are usually located.
The blast tore into Henderson. He was badly wounded by the shrapnel. The Marines stabilized him and called for a helicopter evacuation.
Hours later, as the dirty and sweat-soaked Marines walked back into camp, one of Henderson�s fellow marines wearily took off his helmet.
�Well, that was another shit sandwich,� he said.
[Image: GlobalPost.com]
