CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An 82nd Airborne pilot who was stationed at Fort Liberty was seriously injured in a drone strike in Iraq, his family said.
Garrett Illerbrunn lives in Pinehurst with his wife, Lorna, and their son, Tucker, He was among three soldiers who were injured in an Iran-backed attack on Christmas Day in northern Iraq. The attack happened at Erbil Air Base. President Joe Biden ordered retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups that claimed credit for the attack.
A close family friend told WRAL News that Illerbrunn has a severe head injury and was taken to a hospital in Germany where he remains unconscious.
"We're basically just going off of prayers and positive energy at this point that he can get reunited with his son, be there to raise him, be there with his wife," said Clio Carroll, a friend of Illerbrunn's wife.
A GoFundMe campaign started for the family is raising money to help build the treehouse Illerbrunn planned for his son and to help furnish their home with the proper supports he'll need when he returns.
The U.S. has thousands of troops in Iraq training Iraqi forces and combating remnants of the Islamic State group, and hundreds in Syria, mostly on the counter-IS mission. They have come under dozens of attacks, though as yet none fatal, since the war began on Oct. 7, with the U.S. attributing responsibility to Iran-backed groups.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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