2 US soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan identified by Pentagon

The military says that the incident, for which the Taliban has claimed credit, is still under investigation.

Both soldiers were based out of Fort Carson, Colo.

Collette, 29, was from Lancaster, Ohio, and assigned to the 242nd Ordnance Battalion, 71st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group.

Lindsay, 33, was from of Cortez, Colo., and assigned to 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

Collette first joined the Army back in 2010, and served as explosive ordnance disposal specialist. His deployment to Afghanistan began in December 2018, and he had already been awarded with a Purple Heart during his deployment.

Collette’s wife, Caela Marie Collette, told Stars & Stripes she and Collette were newlyweds: “We didn’t have our full ceremony yet because we didn’t have time. We got married less than a month before he deployed and then when he returned in June we were going to fly to Florida and have a ceremony there.”

She said Collette been motivated to join the military because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and wanted to deploy before he left the military in 2020. “He was getting out of the Army in February next year and had never been on deployment,” she said. “He wanted to go on deployment badly.”

After he was killed on Friday, Collette’s wife called him “my best friend” in a Facebook post about his death. “I’m so lost without him right now,” she wrote.

Lindsay, a Green Beret, had joined the Army in 2004, and served in the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) for 13 years.

U.S. Special Operations Command said that Lindsay had deployed to Iraq five times during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, and to Tajikistan in 2016 as part of a counternarcotics terrorism mission in addition to his recent deployment in Afghanistan.

During his numerous deployments, he was awarded four Bronze Stars as well as a Purple Heart.

Col. Lawrence Ferguson, commander of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), praised Lindsay’s service: “Will was one of the best in our formation.”

Lindsay leaves behind a wife and four daughters.

Newsweek reported other American soldiers were wounded in the fighting, including a special forces soldier in stable condition who will be evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Two other U.S. service members were also wounded in the firefight, and both are expected to recover.

Qayum Nuristani, a spokesman for the Afghan special forces, told the New York Times that an Afghan commando was also killed in the fighting and that three others Afghan soldiers were wounded. He also said that many Taliban were also killed in the battle.

Collette and Lindsay are the third and fourth U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan in 2019.

More than 2,400 U.S. service members have been killed and more than 20,000 wounded in Afghanistan since combat operations began there in October 2001, following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

There are roughly 14,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan helping train the Afghan Armed Forces. The U.S. also carries out counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts against the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist elements that have found a safe haven in the country.

The U.S. government, led by U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, has been negotiating for months with Taliban representatives in Qatar.

Khalilzad claims that the U.S. and the Taliban have tentatively agreed on two aspects of an agreement: a timeline for U.S. withdrawal from the country and guarantees from the Taliban that foreign terrorists would not be welcome. Many are skeptical of the Taliban’s trustworthiness on following through on its assurances.

The Afghan government has been excluded from these discussions at the request of the Taliban to their great frustration.