Navy medical corpsman from Riverbank killed in Afghanistan

By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers

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KABUL, Afghanistan � Navy medical corpsman James Layton of Riverbank, who was identified today as one of those killed Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, had been ministering to a wounded U.S. Marine when they came under a volley of insurgent bullets killing them and two more Marines, according to their comrades.

All four men were at the front of a column heading on foot into the small village of Ganjigal in eastern Kunar Province, close to the Pakistani border.

They were on a training mission with Afghan forces who were to search the village for weapons and then meet village elders under an agreement to establish government authority there. Insurgent forces had set up positions in the village and in the mountains on either side and apparently attacked as the men reached the first compound.

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Nine Afghans, eight of them security forces and one an interpreter for the Marine commander, were killed. Three Americans and 19 Afghans were wounded.

Layton, 22, who was a petty officer III class, apparently had been applying medical aid when he and the wounded Marine � not yet identified by the Department of Defense � came under fierce attack, Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, 21, of Greensburg, Ky., told McClatchy Newspapers. He and others said they found wrappings of bandages and other medical gear strewn around Layton and the wounded Marine.

A McClatchy reporter, embedded with the Marine unit, was farther back in the column, about 250 yards from the front when the ambush began.

In Sacramento, Gov. Schwarzenegger issued a statement of condolence on Layton's death and said flags at the Capitol would be flown at half-staff in his memory.

Layton is the 28th soldier or Marine from the Northern San Joaquin Valley and foothills killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the first from Riverbank. He was a graduate of Sierra View Independent Study in Escalon.

Editor's note: Read Jon Landay's earlier account of the deaths of Layton and three others by clicking on the story link at left or by clicking here.