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thedrifter
09-01-05, 01:38 PM
Seven Marines from unit based in Buffalo are wounded while on patrol in Iraq
2 from India Company badly hurt by bomb
By JAY REY
News Staff Reporter
9/1/2005

Seven Marines from a Buffalo-based unit were wounded last week while serving in Iraq.

A device exploded while the Marines were on patrol Friday, injuring six members of India Company of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Reginment, based at the Marine Corps Reserve Center on Porter Avenue. A seventh was shot last Tuesday on patrol.

Lance Cpl. Mark Beyers, 26, of Elma, was the most seriously wounded. His right arm and leg were amputated, according to his mother and a Marine spokesman.

He was in critical, but stable condition, Wednesday in a hospital in Germany.

Beyers is in an induced coma and expected to be transported to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., this weekend, said his mother, Tricia Hess Beyers.

Beyers, who grew up in Alden, and five others from the unit were patroling in the al-Anbar province Friday when an improvised explosive device went off, said Master Sgt. Thomas Whelan.

Beyers suffered shrapnel wounds, as did Lance Cpl. Matthew Schilling, of West Virginia. Schilling's right foot was amputated and he also is now in a hospital in Germany, Whelan said.

The others injured were:

Cpl. William Maher of Hamburg, who suffered an inner-ear injury from the explosion and may have fractured his right wrist.

Lance Cpl. Nathan Timblin of North Tonawanda, who suffered a concussion and inner-ear injury.

Pvt. Timothy Condello of Fairport, who suffered a concussion and ear injury, as well.

Lance Cpl. Justin Howard of Great Valley, who suffered a back sprain and ear injury.

All four were treated and were expected to return to duty, Whelan said.

In a separate incident last Tuesday, Lance Cpl. James E. Caflisch II, 23, of Lakewood, was wounded when a bullet ricocheted off a building and hit him in the upper right leg. He is expected to make a full recovery, said his father, James E. Caflisch.

India Company was activated Jan. 4, and deployed to Iraq on March 1, with the task of searching out insurgents. Twelve of its Marines have been wounded since then. The lone fatality was Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeffrey L. Wiener, a corpsman from Long Island attached to India Company, who was killed during fighting on May 6.

Beyer's mother, meanwhile, was informed about her son's injuries Friday, and hopes to go to Maryland to meet him at the hospital.

"Wild horses could not keep this mother away from her son," said Hess Beyers, who lives in Perrysburg.

His mother's attitude about the war hasn't changed.

"I don't like any kind of war, but I dislike the Saddam Husseins more," she said. "We're Americans. This is what we do."

"I have been more lucky than a whole lot of other parents," she said. "My son is still alive."

Beyers, who has been in the Marines since he was 19, is among a group of high school buddies from Alden serving with the Marines over in Iraq.

Beyers was the first to sign up, followed by his friend, Bruce Luck, and then Denise Lauck, now Beyers' fiancee. Beyers and Lauck are both members of India Company, but she serves stateside as liaison to the Marines and their families, Hess Beyers said.

e-mail: jrey@buffnews.com

Ellie