U.S. Army Photo By SSG Russell Lee Klika - The members of Greeneville-based Troop G of the 2nd Squadron of the 278th Regimental Combat Team are shown standing in formation on Tuesday during a military memorial service in Iraq for Spc. Paul W. Thomason, a Troop G soldier who was killed in a bomb attack on a military truck in northern Iraq. Four other 278th RCT soldiers, including Spc. Tony Lambert, of Mosheim, were wounded in the attack.

By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
03-23-2005

A 278th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) soldier from Mosheim was seriously injured in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq last Sunday that killed another soldier.

Spc. Anthony “Tony” Lambert is being flown back to the United States for medical treatment, according to Carolyn Knight, chairman of the Family Readiness Group for 278th RCT’s Morristown-based 190th Engineer Company, Lambert, a resident of the Old Knoxville Highway, Mosheim, was scheduled to have been flown overnight to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center near Washington, D.C., for medical treatment.

Knight said Lambert was a member of the Morristown-based 190th Engineer Company.

When a Greeneville Sun reporter reached Knight by cellular telephone this morning, she said she was driving back to Morristown from the Knoxville airport where she had taken Tony Lambert’s wife, Renita, and stepdaughter, Whitney.

Knight said Mrs. Lambert and her daughter were flying to Washington, D.C., to be with Tony Lambert while he was undergoing medical treatment there.

"She hadn’t gotten an update this morning," added the Family Readiness Group’s chairman.

Knight also said she understood that Shawn Hall, another 190th Engineer Company soldier who was wounded in the Sunday bomb attack, was expected to return to duty in Iraq later this week.

Attack Recalled

In an article that appeared in Tuesday’s newspaper, Graham Leonard, a retired educator who is embedded with the 2nd Squadron of the 278th RCT, described the Sunday attack that killed Spc. Paul Thomason and wounded four other soldiers. Leonard’s article identified Spc. Lambert as the driver of the military truck that was hit by the bomb attack.

Lambert, according to the article, was the most severely wounded of the survivors of the attack. He sustained two broken ankles, broken ribs and had one lung punctured by a rib, according to the report.

"Within a few hours, Lambert was in Germany for surgery and bone repair," Leonard reported. Tuesday’s article also noted that Spc. Dennis Holt, of Ashland City, was thrown off the back of the truck and suffered a broken foot.

Spc. David Orlandini of Maryville, and Spc. Shawn Hall of Telford, also suffered injuries from the explosion.

Holt and Orlandini are members of Troop E, based in Newport. Capt. Douglas Dunlap, 50th Main Support Battalion, commander of the convoy, said, "Spc. Hall, while still in the damaged vehicle, returned fire with his weapon even though he was bleeding badly from a head wound," which eventually took 12 stitches to close.

"After the exchange of fire ceased, he continued to move around the site rendering assistance wherever needed," Capt. Dunlap said.

Spc. Orlandini suffered a badly broken foot.

"Refusing medical attention, Orlandini, a medic, made his way to the side of Spc. Thomason," the captain said. "Even though he was in obvious pain, he continued and used his medical skills to assist those who had suffered more serious injuries."

Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun