Community Corner

Marine Wounded by IED in Afghanistan

Adrian Simone, 19-year-old Montville Township High School graduate, lost both of his legs at the knee after his unit stumbled into an improvised explosive device, his mother said.

A 19-year-old Marine from Montville who was stationed in Afghanistan for the past month took the brunt of an explosion from an IED this week and had both of his legs amputated at the knee as a result of his injuries, his mother said.

Adrian Simone, a lance corporal who joined the Marines after graduating from last year, was taken to two hospitals in Afghanistan, then to a hospital in Germany and is expected to be flown to the U.S. in the coming days, his mother, Landi Simone, said. He probably will be sent to a military hospital in Bethesda, Md., she said.

Landi Simone said she has talked with her son's nurses by phone and was hoping to talk with her son by phone on Friday after his breathing tube was to be removed.

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He suffered other injuries, but none as serious as those to his legs, his mother said. At first, doctors removed his left foot and right leg below the knee, but later amputated both legs at the knee.

They are not aware of any spinal cord injuries, and Landi Simone said she is confident her son will walk again with prostheses—even, someday, up Mount Washington in New Hampshire, an annual hike for the family.

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"We have a huge amount of faith in him," she said.

She said Marine headquarters called her at 5 a.m. on Wednesday to say her son was seriously wounded.

"You'd rather have that," she said of the phone call. "You don't want to see the Marines coming to your door. ... The phone call is scary, but he's alive, and I know Adrian and I know he'll get through this."

Adrian Simone worked at for several years. His mother owns and operates a beekeeping operation in town, Gooserock Farm, and his father, Paul Simone, owns a piano shop in Hackettstown. His sister, Kira Simone, is a college student.


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