By Mary Spicer
October 01, 2008 11:08 pm
—
The soldier killed Sunday when an Afghan policeman opened fire on U.S. troops at a police station in eastern Afghanistan was once a member of Meadville Area Senior High School’s Class of 1988.
Associated Press reports that Army Sgt.
William E. Hasenflu, 38, was killed after American troops and Afghan police brought suspected militants to the police station in Paktia province.
While initial reports suggested that the shooting — which also wounded three other U.S. soldiers, one of the detainees and an Afghan interpreter working for the Americans — was the work of what an American commander referred to as a “rogue ANP (Afghan police) official,” the incident remains under investigation.
“I don’t know what the motivations were for the ANP to turn on our forces and shoot them and shoot the detainee,” Col. John “Pete” Johnson, commander of Task Force Currahee, told Associated Press. “Quite frankly this is way out of the norm. ... This is the first incident of its kind.”
According to AP, the Americans and Afghans involved in the shooting incident were on a joint patrol when they were attacked with a roadside bomb Sunday. No one was injured, although militants observing the attack fired at the Americans and Afghans before fleeing. When military fighter aircraft tracked down the militants, the soldiers apprehended them and tested them for explosives residue, a spokesman for the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan told AP. The suspects tested positive.
Seven detainees were then taken to the Afghan police station, where the Afghan policeman opened fire. An American commander told AP that U.S. forces in the station then killed the policeman.
Hasenflu was a cavalry scout assigned to the 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Fort Campbell, Ky.
He died one day short of his 39th birthday and just 16 days before he was scheduled to return to Fort Campbell, his mother, Bradenton, Fla., resident Jane Mann, told reporters from her local community following the announcement of his death.
During an interview with Bradenton’s Herald Tribune, Mann recalled the day her teenage son, who grew up in Meadville, came home to deliver the news he had enlisted in the Navy. “I didn’t know about it and I had a fit, but he had decided that is what he wanted to do,” she said. He was 17 years old when he entered the Navy.
School records indicate that Hasenflu attended MASH through what would have been his senior year but he did not graduate, guidance department staff member Heidi McDougal said Wednesday.
According to Mann, Hasenflu met his wife, Judith Corbeau-Hasenflu, in Orlando, Fla., during his military basic training. Married after dating a year and a half, they had three daughters, Savannah, 16, Ashley, 15, and Veronica, 4. Hasenflu is also survived by a sister, Lisa Sheffield, of Meadville, and his father, Earl Hasenflu of Sarasota, Fla.
In addition to the Army, Hasenflu served in the Navy, the Navy Reserves and the National Guard before joining the Army in May 2005, according to information given to the Herald Tribune by the family. At the time of his death, he was on his fourth tour of the Middle East.
The Meadville Tribune was unable to reach family members for comment.
Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.
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