FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — The Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division has suffered its deadliest year in combat since Vietnam, with the deaths of 106 soldiers since March.
The military announced the most recent death on Saturday. Spc. Christian Joseph Romig, of Kenner, La., died on Wednesday after being struck by an improvised explosive device in eastern Afghanistan.
The Fort Campbell-based division has accounted for about 1 in 5 American deaths in Afghanistan over the past year.
The division known as the Screaming Eagles, formed ahead of the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, has been part of President Barack Obama’s troop surge to push back Afghan insurgents.
The division’s 17,000 Afghan-deployed troops will be returning over the next few months. A group of 275 arrived home Friday night.
