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Swede dies in Afghanistan firefight

Published: 22 Jul 12 10:08 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/42164/20120722/

A Swede serving with the US army has been killed in Afghanistan after his unit came under attack in the Khost province, according to a report in the Expressen daily.

The 24-year-old was in Khost on July 14th when his unit was shot at with rocket grenades and smalls arms fire. The man was injured in the attack and died of his injuries in a military hospital, according to the US defence department.

The dead soldier has been identified as Staff Sgt. Carl E. Hammar, 24, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona and was serving with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment.

Carl Eric Hammar held dual citizenship and grew up in Grillby near Enköping in eastern Sweden, according to Expressen. He travelled to the US as an exchange student when he was 17-years-old and signed up to the US military.

He has twice served in Iraq and was sent to Afghanistan in December. He will now be buried in Arlington national cemetery in Virginia beside many other US casualties of war.

Known as Eric, Hammar was the father of two children - aged one and seven.

Khost province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan and lies in the east of the country.

TT/The Local/pvs (news@thelocal.se)

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11:47 July 22, 2012 by Iraniboy
My thoughts go for his family and friends. Poor boy was fooled by US propaganda machine the same way as Afghanis are fooled by Alqaida's.
12:22 July 22, 2012 by Paul_225
Stupid, pointless war.
12:28 July 22, 2012 by EmployedProfessional
Well said # 1&2!
13:47 July 22, 2012 by Svensksmith
#2 Aren't they all?
14:16 July 22, 2012 by EmployedProfessional
somedboy profits on our children's deaths and we just keep waving the flags of deception,convinced that these wars are some kind noble cause.

Today's war brought to you by Halliberton!

We'll be there for you.
15:55 July 22, 2012 by jonathanjames61
What a waste of a fine young mans life in a wasted generation, while those who starts this war are now leaving in pension ,I mean The bush family.Until the philosophy of one man is Inferior and the other Superior is eradicated,then we shall have peace. I never feel sorry for this solder,because its what he signed for,I feel very sorry for the little one he left behind,and his wife.
19:48 July 22, 2012 by whoye
Comment removed by The Local for breach of our terms.
19:49 July 22, 2012 by bcterry
Sincere condolences to family and friends of Staff Sgt. Carl E Hammar.

Another fallen hero.

R.I.P.
21:16 July 22, 2012 by FrozenNorth
I feel sad for deaths on both sides :(

Wars are always useless ... we are in a global world now and everything can be resolved with fair and open dialogue but sadly we are still ruled by few selected elites who are as human as everyone else. Its high time that we let collective wisdom take over rather than continuing the same old school dictatorships under the umbrella of democracy.
22:19 July 22, 2012 by Eric1
Thank you for serving this the USA and free peoples every where. You made the ultimate sacrifice fighting the forces of evil.
07:10 July 23, 2012 by prince T
A fallen hero
08:27 July 23, 2012 by G Kin
Looks like he knew/anticipated he would die young.

24 with 2 kids already; 7 &1.
11:16 July 23, 2012 by martin8558
Iraniboy /writes -My thoughts go for his family and friends. Poor boy was fooled by US propaganda machine the same way as Afghanis are fooled by Alqaida's.

I Served In the US Military and for you say that he was fooled by US propaganda is wrong we help the week and the oppressed and Iraniboy get your facts in order have you ever lived America as a soldier we choose to defend and fight for what we believed in its a choice opportunism.
18:28 July 23, 2012 by Spuds MacKenzie
@whoye Well said! Soldiers are all a bunch of testosterone overloaded morons.

To those of you who are calling him a "hero" are typical brainwashed sheeple. Murderers are NOT heroes!
21:19 July 23, 2012 by Carbarrister
Thank you for your service.

Semper Fi
21:41 July 23, 2012 by bcterry
To those of you who are calling him a "hero" are typical brainwashed sheeple. Murderers are NOT heroes! "

Pfft.

Tell it to the taliban, "MURDERERS", who murder innocent women for simply being ACCUSED, NO PROOF, of infidelity, or single young women simply for the crime of falling in love, or the all the young girls who were not allowed to even go to school, or the group of young men, who they mowed down in cold blood simply because they laughed, that this young HERO was fighting against on behalf of them, and gave his life in doing so.
01:26 July 24, 2012 by waffen
The1st/501 sounds like this might be of the 173rd AB Brigade, stationed in Vicenza , Italy.

That Brigade has served mutliple tours in Afghanistan. I was with them as a civilian for three years, and I had good friends among them.

My thoughts are with his wife and children, and his parents and siblings.

Well done , Sergeant.

Those of your who decry wars as senseless, yes, WWI, WWII, Korea , Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan all senseless, and where many men and women combat soldiers have served in the last two, and where many will serve in the next war, and the one after that, and the one after that, because war is the nature of mankind.

Look to the tough-guy attitudes from two posters above for confirmation of that nature..

The Swedie has served well, , and I would never call him a murderer.

However, this veteran knows enough to just allow those who will act like idiots the right to do so.
11:24 July 24, 2012 by Nvd
War for what? Peace? Lol. Indeed.

I hope that his wife tells the children the true story that he died serving an idea of no significant benefit to his own country.

R.I.P man. Too bad that the world is full of blood sucking politicians and they have media as the opium for masses.

And "He has twice served" must be "He had twice served".

PEACE.
16:14 July 24, 2012 by KEBlaster
Thank you for taking care of your brothers.
23:46 July 24, 2012 by wxman
My Swedish grandfather came to the US at the age of 17 years also. He was a hardworking construction worker all his life and retired as a forman who built many skyscrapers in the US. I served a career of 25 years in the US military from Vietnam to Desert Storm, and am proud of it. This young man still had the Viking spirit so long missing in his homeland. Gud omfamnar dig hero!
11:40 July 25, 2012 by rise
#20

"This young man still had the Viking spirit so long missing in his homeland."

Oh, Swedes as of today are experts at pretending and making you see the image they want rather than the image of reality. A Swede is a wolf in sheep's clothing!

According to the book "Svenskar i strid" nearly a hundred thousand Swedes have participated in military conflicts around the globe since the ending of WWII. That is not something heard of in the school or the media. Where have they all been and what have they done? The book gives some answers...

I think the book would interest you very much since your grandfather came from Sweden. And maybe also give you a more justified image of his homeland. I don't know if there is any English translation of it, but maybe you know Swedish?
06:23 July 26, 2012 by sqwimpy
Yah I am very versed in what happens to the people that serve in military conflicts from Sweden. It's called Peacekeepers.

History will find that people who are violent make their way to the U.S. Hey my ancestors did. I served in the US Marines and I am not proud of the murderers on both sides.

Now people pick on Sweden...Don't bother. The US is very proud of their legacy of violence.

Ending a human life any way it happens is a waste. It's all for profit of the country who goes into it and it's associates.
21:01 July 26, 2012 by heyhere407
No one deserves to die for invasion into other country.

Maybe he earns more for being in the army because of his family and enjoys kill, abuse and torture prisoners
11:25 July 29, 2012 by rise
#22

The word "fredsbevarande" (peacekeeping) isn't used that much anymore. At least not in Sweden. The word assumes there's now peace and the only thing left to do is upholding it. Instead a truer and more honest word is being used: "fredsframtvingande", which may be translated into something like peace-enforcing.

But still whatever word's being used people dies in the same way. :(
15:47 July 29, 2012 by smilingjack
search google for ( bob hale crusades for a quick chuckle ) guy is hilarious. note use of palestine as it should be rightly called.

check the kill stats from nato and the USA. the taliban target squad leaders. sgts and above. on the usa death list they read out each week 90% are sgts. the taliban know exactly who they are killing. kill the sgt and the squad falls to pieces. anyone who thinks the nato's forces are fighting "evil" is seriously deluded. the yanks are continuing the christian crusades and wont stop until they are wiped out themselves. any dead nato soldier is a good thing. they sooner they bugger off back to their own countries the better for us all. unfortunately iran being a muslim country will be attacked by the christian forces sooner or later. I note in australia we get the daily islam bad christians good proganda in every paper and the news.
22:17 August 4, 2012 by Lotus2035
This guy died for US corporate and military interests nothing more.

WW2 quenched the European blood-lust once and for all. The fact remains that the USA and it's citizens have never experienced the horrors of modern warfare on a grand scale on their own soil. If they did it would most certainly change their warmongering tune. It's easy to be cocky when your own families and neighborhoods aren't in danger of being obliterated.
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