Arlington seaman killed by bomb in Afghanistan

Some of Seaman Eichmann Strickland's comrades called him Doc.

Perhaps it was because he was a Navy medical corpsman stationed with a Marine unit in Japan. Perhaps it was just because he had aspirations.

He hoped for a career in the medical field, perhaps as a physician assistant. He aspired to join a medical mission to Africa. He hoped to be home for Christmas. And he dreamed of winning the lottery.

Those hopes and dreams were dashed last week when Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Strickland, 23, of Arlington, died after the vehicle he was driving hit an improvised bomb in Afghanistan's Afghanya Valley, northwest of Kabul, the capital.

Strickland, a 2003 graduate of Arlington's Lakewood High School, was killed Sept. 9, according to a Department of Defense release.

According to a military spokeswoman, Strickland was a member of a training team deployed to Afghan Regional Security Integration Command Central. He was part of a team in Afghanistan providing the Afghan National Army with combat advisers.

He was not only patching wounds on Marines and Afghans alike but was also training Afghan soldiers how to treat their wounded, according to military sources.

In Iwakuni, Japan, he regularly performed sick calls, maintaining health records and assisting medical officers. At times he was the only on-site medical personnel around, and the closest thing to an on-call doctor. He had been assigned to Combat Logistics Company 36 at Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni.

Strickland enlisted in the military nearly five years ago, said Navy Region Northwest spokeswoman Melanie Reeder. He had been stationed in Afghanistan for nine months.