According to the US Navy website, Officer Wilson was an intelligence
specialist who was named Sailor of the Quarter after successfully leading a
maritime operations centre last year.
A letter of commendation which accompanied the award said: “Your
enthusiastic leadership emphasised the responsibility of sailors to mentor
junior personnel, eliminate communication problems, enhance career
development, and inspire senior petty officers to assume leadership roles.”
He had been in the Navy since 2004.
Officer Wilson’s death comes more than 10 years after the war’s first
casualty. US Air Force sergeant Evander Earl Andrews from Maine was killed
in a heavy equipment accident in November 2001.
Operation Enduring Freedom was launched shortly after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks on the US, and at the time politicians on both sides of the Atlantic
expressed the hope that no Coalition lives would be lost.
British and American forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014.