Green Beret from O'ahu among wounded troops in Afghanistan
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
A 30-year-old Army Green Beret from Hawai'i was wounded in Afghanistan yesterday when a 2,000-pound bomb dropped by an American B-52 plane exploded about 100 yards away, killing three soldiers and injuring 20.
Amerine family photo
Capt. Jason Amerine, a 1989 Roosevelt High School graduate, suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg and a ruptured eardrum. U.S. and Afghan ground forces had come under mortar fire north of Kandahar and the B-52 strike was called in to provide close-air support, his family and Pentagon officials said.
Capt. Jason Amerine suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg and a ruptured ear drum.
Ron and Carol Amerine, who live in the Diamond Head area, received the news from a chaplain at 7:30 a.m. yesterday.
"His father almost had a heart attack," Carol Amerine said. "I'm glad he's OK."
She said her son was being treated at a hospital, possibly in Afghanistan, and will head back to his base at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Pentagon officials theorize there was a system malfunction or the wrong coordinates were sent or entered during the air strike, but Carol Amerine said: "The first thing (Jason) said was, 'It's not our (unit's) fault' — and that was very important to him because he's a highly trained professional."
Amerine is part of the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Special Forces Group. Two Special Forces teams were operating in the area north of Kandahar.
The Amerines moved to Hawai'i from San Gabriel, Calif., when their son was 3. Carol Amerine said he dreamed of becoming a Green Beret since his freshman year at Kalani High School, when he joined the Junior ROTC program. He graduated from West Point in 1993, majoring in Middle East studies, went through Ranger school, and has been a Green Beret for a "couple of years," his mother said.
There was "no question" that he would be headed for Afghanistan — in part because he speaks Arabic and there are Arab fighters there, she said.
"He is a tough kid — and a very brave one," his mother said. "It will be hard on him to find out so many people were so badly injured."
