A Tucson soldier was among those killed in action in Afghanistan Saturday during a fierce firefight with hundreds of insurgents in a remote area near the Pakistan border, the Defense Department announced today.
Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos, 27, who attended Tucson High Magnet School, was one of eight soldiers felled in one of the deadliest days for U.S. troops since the war there began.
Enemy forces equipped with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles swarmed a pair of remote outposts at dawn in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province. More than 20 Afghan security forces were captured in the raid.
Gallegos and his fallen comrades all were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., the DoD said in a news release.
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Abel Morado, principal of Tucson High, said Gallegos would have graduated about 2000. He apparently switched schools in his senior year.
“We certainly honor and respect what he was doing over there,” Morado said. “It’s a loss for our community.”
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