Christopher Speer

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Sergeant First Class (SFC) Christopher J. Speer was a medic in an American special forces unit, who was mortally wounded during a skirmish in Afghanistan, on July 27, 2002. Sergeant Speer died of his head wound approximately two weeks later.

The incident where Sergeant Speer was wounded received attention because he was injured by a fifteen year old Canadian, Omar Khadr, who was detained and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, and over three years following his initial arrest, may face trial for murder by a US military tribunal in 2006.

On the second anniversary of the skirmish SFC Speer's widow Tabitha and a comrade of his, Layne Morris, initiated legal proceedings to claim compensation from the estate of Omar Khadr's father Ahmed Khadr.

SFC Speer enlisted in the Army in 1992. He "was remembered as a capable and confident soldier with an unflappable sense of humor. When the chips were down, friends said, he could pick up his co-workers with a smile and a laugh."* On the day of the skirmish he was leading a squad assigned the task of going through the ruins, looking for weapons, and evidence of terrorism.

Colonel Morris Davis, Khadr's prosecutor, in statements to the press, said that Khadr owed his life to American medics who stepped over the dead body of their colleague to treat Khadr's wounds. Speer died from his wounds on Aug 6 2002 at the age of 28.^[1]