Timothy Bagley, Eric Lindsey
Two soldiers from the Iowa National Guard are recovering from injuries they suffered in the explosion of a bomb Monday while they were on patrol in Afghanistan.
Guard spokesman, Colonel Greg Hapgood says 21-year-old Specialists Timothy Bagley of Brandon, and 30-year-old Sergeant Eric Lindsey of Eldora are now in Germany.
He says they were treated at Bagram airfield and then flown to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for additional medical treatment. They will eventually be transferred to military medical facilities in the United States. Hapgood is not sure of the exact time when the soldiers will return.
Hapgood says their return depends on how much treatment they need in Germany. He says they don’t have any condition or injury reports available on the soldiers. The two men are with the Iowa Falls Company C, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. Hapgood says the I-E-D that injured the two soldiers is one of the things they face on daily patrols.
Hapgood says the improvised explosive devices are common threat the soliders face, but he says they also face incidents that include fire fights with insurgents and other threats. The remaining soldiers in the unit are on the downward move toward finishing up their mission.
Hapgood says the soldiers left Iowa in July and August and arrived in Afghanistan in early November, so they are more than halfway through their deployment. Approximately 2,800 soldiers of the Second Brigade Combat Team were deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.