Savannah-Based Army Ranger Killed in Afghanistan

1st Battalion/75^th Ranger Regiment Sergeant First Class Christopher Celiz of Summerville, South Carolina, while serving in Afghanistan, was wounded by small arms fire (12 July 2018) during combat operations. He “was treated immediately and medically evacuated to the nearest medical treatment facility where he died of his wounds” (Army Special Operations Command statement).  Thirty-two-year-old SFC Celiz was a veteran of multiple overseas deployments, and was home stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia.

Said his Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Sean McGee, in tribute: “Celiz led from the front and always put himself at the decisive point on the battlefield.”  He was posthumously awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal, and the Purple Heart.

Sadly, Ranger SFC Celiz was the second Army fatality in Afghanistan within a week.  Corporal Joseph Maciel, home stationed at Fort Benning (GA), assigned to the Army’s 1^st Security Force Assistance Brigade, is said to have perished at the hands of an “insider” assailant (likely meaning an Afghan soldier) that same week.          (Tribute quote via Daily Caller.com, 13 July 2018)