Master Sergeant Thomas D. Maholic, a Special Forces team sergeant assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), died when he was fatally struck by enemy small arms fire during a cordon and search mission. Enlisting as an infantryman in 1991, his first assignment was with the Pennsylvania National Guard where he was an infantryman for five years. Transitioning to active duty and assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Battalion, Fort Kobbe, Panama. In 1993, he volunteered to become a Special Forces soldier. Maholic graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course in 1995 and assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, as a medical sergeant.

Lt Colonel Richard Berrettini was a Nurse Practitioner/Medic with the Guards Medical Detachment in Erie, PA. His tour of active duty on this deployment was scheduled to end in a couple of weeks. He was providing medical service to our troops and citizens of Afghanistan. On January 2, 2008 his unit was providing escort to a convoy in eastern Afghanistan when his humvee struck an IED, killing 2 immediately and severely wounding Berrettini and another soldier. Treated on scene and airlifted out of country through Germany to Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. In civilian life Berrettini was employed with the Port Allegany High School as a nurse.