Deployed Marines face electrocution threat

Deployed Marines face electrocution threat
By Dan Lamothe
Staff writer
Marine Corps Times Posted : Wednesday May 23, 2012

Clockwise from upper left are: Cpl. Jon-LukeBateman, Cpl. Adam Buyes, Cpl. Connor Lowry and Lance Cpl. Kenneth Cochran.

At least four Marines have been electrocuted in Afghanistan since November, highlighting another hazard for ground forces fighting in Helmand province.

Cpls. Adam Buyes, Connor Lowry and Jon-Luke Bateman and Lance Cpl. Kenneth Cochran were killed in three separate incidents. Buyes died Nov. 26, Bateman and Cochran on Jan. 15, and Lowry on March 1.

Buyes was a radio operator with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Okinawa, Japan. He died in Sangin district after leaving a patrol base on foot with his unit, according to documents outlining a command investigation into his death. His three-foot radio antenna hit a power line hanging about eight feet high, causing “sparks/fire” beneath his feet.

The documents were released to Marine Corps Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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