O.C. Soldier on Life Support After Somalia Crash
A critically injured U.S. Army soldier from Huntington Beach was being kept alive by life-support machines Monday, one week after he suffered major head injuries when his truck crashed into a ravine in Somalia, military officials said.
A Pentagon official declined to release the condition of Pvt. David Conner on Monday but confirmed that the 19-year-old soldier has been unconscious since Feb. 7, when his truck rolled into a ravine. The truck was ferrying water to troops in Somalia, officials said.
“The soldier, he’s not dead, is all that I can tell you right now,” Col. David Garner said from Washington.
Garner added that no additional information will be available until 6 a.m. today.
Conner, 19, was the first casualty from Orange County since U.S. troops were sent to Operation Restore Hope in December.
On Saturday, four crew members based at the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin suffered minor injuries when their helicopter crashed in Somalia while landing during training exercises. Their names were not released Monday.
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