Operation Enduring Freedom:Navy Officer Killed in Action

Lieutenant Christopher E. Mosko,U.S. Navy,was killed while conducting combat operations in Nawa district,Ghazni Province,Afghanistan on 26 April.A member of Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3,San Diego,he was assigned as a Platoon Commander to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force,Afghanistan.He was killed by an IED explosion along with two U.S. Army sergeants. Lt.Mosko,28,was a graduate of Eau Claire Memorial High School,Wisconsin and Drexel University,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,where he was commissioned in 2007 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.Known as an ardent soccer player and choir member at Eau Claire,he listed his residence as Pittsford,New York,where his family resided in recent years.Besides being qualified in explosive ordnance disposal,he also had ratings as a free fall parachutist and scuba diving instructor:a true special ops man.Lt.Mosko was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.In his honor,flags were flown at half staff on New York state buildings. About 90,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan,and most of them are slated for withdrawal by 2014.