MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina’s governor is mourning the loss of a soldier who died in Afghanistan.
Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement late Friday that he offered the state’s “deepest sympathy” to the loved ones and fellow soldiers of Sgt. James Allen Slape. The 23-year-old from Morehead City died Thursday from wounds caused by an improvised explosive device.
Cooper said National Guard members “leave their homes, their families and their jobs and put their lives on the line for us.”
Slape was an explosive ordinance specialist who joined up in 2013. Slape’s unit had deployed to Afghanistan in April and is scheduled to return in the spring. He is the 26th North Carolina Army National Guard soldier to be killed in action since September 2001.
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