The Pentagon has identified the U.S. soldier killed in Operation Freedom’s Sentinel as Army Staff Sgt. Adam Thomas of Takoma Park, Md., according to a press release issued Wednesday evening.
The 31-year-old soldier was killed Oct. 4 in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, “from injuries caused by an improvised explosive device that exploded during dismounted operations.” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said on Wednesday that “this is someone who was in harm’s way, a combat situation to be sure.”
Thomas had been assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Carson, Col.
The U.S. military said the mission was conducted as a part of a larger U.S.-Afghan counterterrorism mission targeting the Islamic State in that country. The Defense Department will open an investigation into Thomas’s death.
