MILITARY: Camp Pendleton officer killed in Afghanistan

1st Lt. Trevor Yurista killed in roadside bombing in Helmand province

By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 29, 2008 5:33 PM PDT ∞

CAMP PENDLETON ---- An officer from this base has died in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.

The department said 1st Lt. Trevor J. Yurista, 32, of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., was killed Monday during combat in Helmand province.

The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal newspaper quoted his father, Ronald Yurista, in its Wednesday edition as saying his son was working as an intelligence officer and was on his third combat tour when he was killed.

Yurista had served two tours in Iraq and volunteered for the Afghanistan assignment. He left the U.S. for that deployment on Sept. 7.

His unit, the 5th Marine Regiment, is part of the 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton.

Yurista was a graduate of Arlington High School in nearby Lagrangeville and had attended Dutchess Community College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He graduated from officer candidate school in 2005.

He is the 15th member of the U.S. armed forces to die in Afghanistan this month.

His awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, a Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and two Sea Service Deployment Ribbons.

Yurista is the third Marine Corps officer to die in Afghanistan this year and the ninth since the October 2001 invasion, according to the Web site icasualties.org, which tracks fatality statistics based on official reports from the Pentagon.

As violence has waned in Iraq in recent months, attacks by Taliban and insurgent foreign fighters in Afghanistan have risen sharply, according to military reports. The number of roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan also are up sharply this year, according to Pentagon officials.

In response to the escalating violence, U.S. commanders in Afghanistan upped their request for 10,000 additional troops to 15,000 earlier this month and are now asking for 20,000 more troops, according to published reports Wednesday quoting unnamed defense officials. There are about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and another 51,000 from NATO countries.

The Pentagon announced this week that the 466th Heavy Helicopter Squadron from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station is joining a force of about 2,000 Marines and sailors being sent to Afghanistan next month.

That force is replacing Marine units from the Marine Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms and from Camp Lejeune, N.C., that are scheduled to come home in late November.

At least 365 locally based Marines and sailors have died in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars were launched.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.