‘Band of Brothers’ soldier dies

UPDATED:

Sgt. 1st Class Raymond J. Munden, of Mesquite, Texas, was killed Tuesday by indirect enemy fire in a battle against insurgents in Afghanistan who attacked the base Forward Operating Base Tillman in Paktika Province.

Sgt 1st Class Munden, 35, was the kind of leader every soldier wanted and the kind of man every soldier wanted to be, his men told The Washington Times last summer, as the “Band of Brothers” company prepared for their air assault mission into Paktika Province, on Afghanistan’s eastern border. The air assault took place on June 6, 2008, 64 years after his 101st Airborne brothers landed in Normandy, an operation immortalized in the HBO film.

Sgt. 1st Class Munden and his unit, Bravo Company, 506th Infantry Regiment, Combined Task Force Currahee, from Fort Campbell, Ky., were humble and brave. He cracked jokes with his men and put them at ease before boarding the Chinook helicopters flying them into the dangerous border province. On the flight, he told The Times that “bringing his men home alive” was his priority. He spoke of his wife and family back home with great love and said he missed them very much.

He was set to come home in just three weeks and was scheduled to be stationed at West Point to serve out the rest of his tour, his friends told The Times.

Below is a repost of The Washington Times article from June 7, 2008.

KHOST, Afghanistan | On June 6, 1944, the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment known as the “Band of Brothers” landed in Normandy, France, and changed the course of World War II.

The modern-day Band of Brothers prepared Friday for an air assault and dropoff in the eastern Paktika province near the Pakistan border, a stronghold of the Taliban insurgency.

Like their “brothers” in World War II, many of the soldiers in what is now the Bravo Company, 506th Infantry Regiment, Combined Task Force Currahee are young and on their first deployment. This time, however, their fight might not be as well remembered.

“Everybody knows about D-Day. Nobody’s going to know pretty much what we’re doing now, except for if they actually study a bunch of history,” said one soldier, waiting outside the Chinook launch pad at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Salerno in eastern Afghanistan.

Another added, “They got to go against Germans, we get to against mountains.”

Far from home, many of the soldiers wondered if the American public still remembered that they are fighting and dying in Afghanistan. But their leaders, who have seen numerous deployments, took it upon themselves to lighten the mood by joking around with the younger soldiers.

“This is my second mission in Afghanistan but my first deployment,” said 19-year-old Pvt. David Hayes, from Napa, Calif., who added, “I miss the food … and my family.”

“Did you hear his voice crack?” joked Staff Sgt. Raymond Munden, the platoon sergeant, who has seen his fair share of combat. This was Sgt. Munden’s sixth deployment since fighting in Somalia in 1992.

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