Christopher Speer
Christopher James Speer (September 9, 1973 – August 6, 2002) was a United States Army combat medic and an armed member of a special operations team who was killed during a skirmish in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002. Speer, who was not wearing a helmet at the time because the mission called for indigenous clothing, suffered a head wound from a grenade and succumbed to his injuries approximately two weeks later. Omar Khadr was charged and convicted of throwing the grenade that killed Speer. Training and deployment Speer enlisted in the United States Army in July 1992 and after initial training as a combat medic, was assigned to the Army Hospital at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, until 1994. He received 18 Delta combat medic training at the Joint Special Operations University at Hurlburt Field, Florida. Speer was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group upon completing training as a Special Forces medic in 1997. As part of the 1st SFOD-D (known as Delta Force and based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina), he deployed to Afghanistan in Spring 2002 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Death On July 27, 2002, Christopher Speer and a group of four other soldiers on reconnaissance patrol