Wounded lance cpl. taken off life support - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Wounded lance cpl. taken off life support

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — The parents of a Marine wounded in Afghanistan said there son was taken off life support this week.

Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Carpenter, a member of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was shot in the neck while on patrol in southern Afghanistan. The bullet severed his spinal cord. His heart stopped and it took officials 43 minutes to revive him. Medical officials later declared the 27-year-old brain dead.

Carpenter died Feb. 19, the Defense Department confirmed Tuesday.

Some new stories reported that Carpenter was shot in Kandahar province, but that is not the case, said Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a Marine spokeswoman in Afghanistan. The 26th MEU has been operating in northern Helmand province’s Upper Gereshk Valley.

Father Kevin Carpenter spoke with The Daily Herald on Saturday from Germany, where his son was hospitalized. He and his wife flew there last week to spend time with their son.

“We got to tell him we love him. We got to see him. And even though he wasn’t there, we got to hold him,” he said.

The Marine’s father said officials tried their best to keep his son alive and considered flying him back to the U.S. to let his wife see him, but they believe he would have died during the flight.

Crissie Ponder could not fly to Germany because she is pregnant and expecting to give birth in less than two weeks.

Andrew Carpenter joined the Marines in 2007 and was serving his second deployment in Afghanistan. Kevin Carpenter said his son was due back sometime this spring. He married Ponder in 2010.

She declined comment to the newspaper, but wrote on her husband’s Facebook page: “You will always be my soul mate and my best friend forever. ... I look forward to seeing you in Heaven one day, baby.”

Cpl. Joseph Davis, who has known Carpenter since childhood, will escort the Marine’s body back to Tennessee once he reaches U.S. soil.

Davis said his friend was always happy wherever he went.

“He lived a full life,” Davis said. “He loved doing what he was doing. He was glad to serve.”