A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier trained to disable explosive devices died Thursday from wounds he suffered in a Dec. 9 explosion in Afghanistan, the Defense Department announced Saturday.
Staff Sgt. Nicholas J. Reid, 26, of Rochester, N.Y., was injured in Sperwan Village in Kandahar province. He died in the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
Reid was assigned to the 53rd Ordnance Company of Lewis-McChord’s 3rd Explosive Ordinance Battalion.
EOD companies in the 3rd Battalion are serving throughout southern Afghanistan in small teams this year, attaching themselves to infantry units patrolling through dangerous terrain in the Taliban’s birthplace.
According to the Defense Department, Reid entered the Army in August 2006, after graduating from high school in 2004. He did his advanced training as an explosives disposal specialist at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
He was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the 3rd Battalion in April 2008. His unit was most recently deployed to Afghanistan in September 2012. It was Reid’s second deployment.
Reid is the 35th Lewis-McChord soldier to die in Afghanistan this year.
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