Purple Heart Recipient, A Former Wayne Cop, Recounts Surviving IED Blast In Iraq

WAYNE, NJ — During his second of three tours in Iraq, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Carbone almost made the ultimate sacrifice when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb while responding to a distress call.

Carbone, a retired Wayne Police Department officer, was a First Lieutenant with the U.S. Army at the time; he received a Purple Heart after being severely injured in the blast in October 2005.

Two soldiers who were with Carbone that day — as a young gunner and a forward-thinking medic who helped save his life — were the first to salute him at his new rank of Lieutenant Colonel, as the U.S. Army Reserve reported.

The three comrades-in-arms reunited at Tommy B’s Community Center, (located in Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst) during a promotion ceremony in May. They shared their memories of that day nearly 18 years ago, for a feature on the the Army Reserve website.

First Lt. Carbone was serving as a rifle platoon leader with 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment (Mountain), assigned to the 2nd Marine Division. He and fellow soldiers were coming back to their area of Ramadi, when they received a distress call from one of the Bradley Fighting Vehicles south of their location.

Private First Class Anthony Jorgensen was in the Humvee with Carbone as they responded to the distress call. And back at the Forward Operating Base, now-retired Sgt. Brent Reader felt something was not right with the mission. Reader was serving as a medic for the 172nd's 1st Battalion, and recalled that he "begged" superiors to go help Carbone:

“We had lost a lieutenant in a (previous) attack, and Lieutenant Carbone was replacing him,” said Reader. “Knowing that he was new, I don’t think he quite got the severity (of the situation)."

At the risk of disciplinary action, Reader chose to go beyond where the battalion's tactical operations center told him he could. He packed up his vehicle, left the FOB, and went in Carbone's direction.

“As a medic, I had to walk a fine line, because you’re given a direct order, but as a medic your job is to save people,” Reader said. “To be an effective Soldier and save troops – whether you’re a medic or not – you have to think outside those boundaries and make judgement calls.”

And as he was just outside Carbone's position, Reader saw a plume of smoke and realized the Humvee had been hit by an improvised explosive device. The lieutenant was wounded on the ground when Reader arrived.

“The last thing I remember is turning to my driver and telling him to speed it up, and then it was just a flash,” Carbone said. “I woke up outside the truck with mayhem around. It was an IED – a roadside bomb.”

Jorgensen and the other soldiers in the vehicle were all injured, as well. They had a medic with them, but he was the only one physically capable of firing his weapon — and the soldiers were taking small-arms fire.

Reader loaded the wounded onto his vehicle and got them back to base, even though his vehicle triggered an IED blast on both legs of the trip. Medics stabilized Carbone and Jorgensen, and they were both evacuated: to Balad, Iraq, then Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and finally stateside for long-term recovery.

Carbone, who said he has 20 titanium screws and plates all throughout the upper right side of his skull, served a third tour in Iraq and is currently the operations chief for the 99th Readiness Division’s Mission Command Support Group, headquartered at the Maj. John P. Pryor U.S. Army Reserve Center. He also served as a Wayne Township officer from March 2006 until he retired in February 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Jorgensen, now a retired sergeant first class, said Carbone's leadership helped him keep his courage.

“I was a young private, and that started off my Army career,” Jorgensen said. “A lot of me wanted to just run away, and it’s because of Lieutenant Colonel Carbone that I kept going.”

“We went through something that most people never go through, and what’s unique about it is that we both continued to serve – we both kept going overseas after that experience,” said Jorgensen.

See more here from the U.S. Army Reserve.