Another two soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y., have been killed in Afghanistan. That makes 22 men from the 3,500-strong combat team killed in action since May 15, and another four non-combat related deaths since March 22, most of the latter from vehicle roll-overs. I don't know how many have been wounded.
The governor has ordered flags on state buildings to fly at half mast Wednesday for the two soldiers, Staff Sgt. Nekl Allen and Specialist Daniel Cox, who were killed when their vehicle was hit by a bomb and small arms fire. Cox was on his second deployment in Afghanistan, and Allen was on his first after two earlier tours in Iraq. Allen, from suburban Rochester, N.Y., leaves a wife and three children.
Meanwhile, the remains of a Civil War soldier from a New York regiment killed at the Battle of Antietam in 1862 will lie in state today at the Military Museum in Saratoga Springs before being buried Thursday at Solomon National Cemetery. While I salute that effort, I think at least equal attention needs to be -- but is not being -- paid to the deaths and lives of soldiers like Allen and Cox.
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