Cpl. Michael Fox of Escondido lost both of his legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Monday. His mother, Margaret Fox Jones, pictured with him here, spoke to him in a military hospital in Germany by phone.
Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/military-escondido-marine-loses-legs-in-afghanistan-bombing/article_319d9bc3-5b32-59c5-a999-12813ebe0b3b.html#ixzz1eALRZNMP
A 26-year-old Marine raised in North County has lost his legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Helmand province, his mother and other family members said Friday.
Margaret Fox Jones of Escondido said the call she received from a Marine Corps official about her son, Cpl. Michael Fox, was among the worst type of news a parent can get.
Jones had a message on her cellphone Tuesday that she needed to call a Marine Corps official.
"I was shaking so bad, because I know you don't get those kinds of phone calls unless something is terribly wrong with your boy," she said.
The gunnery sergeant she reached first asked her whether she was sitting down. He went on to say that her son, a 2003 graduate of Rancho Bernardo High School, had stepped on a roadside bomb during a patrol in the Now Zad district of Helmand province and lost his legs in the blast.
On Friday morning, Jones spoke briefly by telephone with her son, who is being treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
"Don't worry, Mom. I'm going to be OK," Jones said he told her.
Fox, an infantryman, was on his first assignment to Afghanistan since joining the Marine Corps at age 23.
He is a member of Echo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment stationed at Camp Pendleton.
Officials told Jones that her son was the most seriously injured in the Monday incident.
Jones and other family members contacted the newspaper because they wanted to alert the community and Fox's friends that he had been wounded.
Marine Corps officials confirmed Friday that Fox had been injured.
His unit was on patrol in armored vehicles when it stopped to check for roadside bombs, according to what officials told Jones and Fox's aunt, Myra Strandburg, who is also from Escondido.
Fox and the other service members came under small-arms fire shortly after getting out of their vehicles and were forming a defensive position when Fox stepped on what the military calls an improvised explosive device.
He also has a broken arm and other injuries from the blast.
"He was the only one in the group that got seriously wounded," Jones said.
Fox is expected to be flown from Germany soon to the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland and then on to Naval Medical Center San Diego, where extensive care and rehabilitation services are in place for troops who lose their limbs.
His mother said Fox decided to join the Marine Corps without her knowledge nearly four years ago.
"He's always been very patriotic and told me it was something he felt he had to do to serve the country," Jones said.
Fox was due home in March.
"I'm happy that he's alive and he'll be back," Jones said. "I didn't want him to go in the first place, but he told me that it was his job and that he had to go."
She described her son as very outgoing, with a ready smile for all.
"It doesn't seem real and it's so unfortunate," she said. "He isn't coming home from his deployment in the way that he left, but he is coming home, and I'm happy that he's alive."
Jones said she's also sifting through some raw emotions.
"Something has to change so we get the hell out of Afghanistan and so young men don't have to go there and get hurt and die. I know we're over there to help innocent people, and while I'm a little angry, at least I am going to get my son back."
Margaret Fox Jones of Escondido said the call she received from a Marine Corps official about her son, Cpl. Michael Fox, was among the worst type of news a parent can get.
Jones had a message on her cellphone Tuesday that she needed to call a Marine Corps official.
"I was shaking so bad, because I know you don't get those kinds of phone calls unless something is terribly wrong with your boy," she said.
The gunnery sergeant she reached first asked her whether she was sitting down. He went on to say that her son, a 2003 graduate of Rancho Bernardo High School, had stepped on a roadside bomb during a patrol in the Now Zad district of Helmand province and lost his legs in the blast.
On Friday morning, Jones spoke briefly by telephone with her son, who is being treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
"Don't worry, Mom. I'm going to be OK," Jones said he told her.
Fox, an infantryman, was on his first assignment to Afghanistan since joining the Marine Corps at age 23.
He is a member of Echo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment stationed at Camp Pendleton.
Officials told Jones that her son was the most seriously injured in the Monday incident.
Jones and other family members contacted the newspaper because they wanted to alert the community and Fox's friends that he had been wounded.
Marine Corps officials confirmed Friday that Fox had been injured.
His unit was on patrol in armored vehicles when it stopped to check for roadside bombs, according to what officials told Jones and Fox's aunt, Myra Strandburg, who is also from Escondido.
Fox and the other service members came under small-arms fire shortly after getting out of their vehicles and were forming a defensive position when Fox stepped on what the military calls an improvised explosive device.
He also has a broken arm and other injuries from the blast.
"He was the only one in the group that got seriously wounded," Jones said.
Fox is expected to be flown from Germany soon to the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland and then on to Naval Medical Center San Diego, where extensive care and rehabilitation services are in place for troops who lose their limbs.
His mother said Fox decided to join the Marine Corps without her knowledge nearly four years ago.
"He's always been very patriotic and told me it was something he felt he had to do to serve the country," Jones said.
Fox was due home in March.
"I'm happy that he's alive and he'll be back," Jones said. "I didn't want him to go in the first place, but he told me that it was his job and that he had to go."
She described her son as very outgoing, with a ready smile for all.
"It doesn't seem real and it's so unfortunate," she said. "He isn't coming home from his deployment in the way that he left, but he is coming home, and I'm happy that he's alive."
Jones said she's also sifting through some raw emotions.
"Something has to change so we get the hell out of Afghanistan and so young men don't have to go there and get hurt and die. I know we're over there to help innocent people, and while I'm a little angry, at least I am going to get my son back."
Call staff writer Mark Walker at 760-901-4080.
Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/military-escondido-marine-loses-legs-in-afghanistan-bombing/article_319d9bc3-5b32-59c5-a999-12813ebe0b3b.html#ixzz1eALRZNMP
