Tucson soldier dies from Afghanistan wounds

Updated Nov 11, 2010, 1:22 am

Dylan Smith
TucsonSentinel.com

azdiamondreport.comChris Moon, pitching for the Tucson High Badgers in 2007.

Spc. Christopher J. Moon, a former Tucson High baseball star, died Tuesday from injuries he suffered while serving in Afghanistan, the Defense Department confirmed.

The 2006 Southern Arizona Player of the Year stepped on a roadside bomb July 6. Both of Moon's legs were amputated, and he was being treated in a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

Moon left the then top-ranked University of Arizona baseball team in 2008 to join the Army. Moon enlisted after the first semester of his freshman year. He never played a college game.

The Defense Department confirmed Moon's death in a news release Wednesday morning.

Moon was serving in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, with his unit, the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Moon is the 46th member of the military with Southern Arizona ties to die in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Spc. Christian M. Adams, 26, a soldier from Sierra Vista, died in Kandahar of wounds from a non-combat incident in June.

Tech. Sgt. Michael P. Flores, 32, and Airman Benjamin D. White, 24, were killed when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan the same month The two were both pararescueman assigned to the 48th Rescue Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.