Sanders, Charles Ray Jr

Staff Sergeant Charles Ray Sanders Jr. was a 29-year-old native of Charleston, Missouri. He served in the U.S. Army with F Company, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, part of the 12th Aviation Brigade, V Corps, based in Giebelstadt, Germany. His unit was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan that began in October 2001.

On April 6, 2005, Sanders was killed in Ghazni province, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The Department of Defense announced his death days later, confirming he died while conducting operations in the region. At the time, Ghazni was an area of sustained insurgent activity, where U.S. and coalition forces frequently engaged in combat patrols and security missions.

Sanders was a non-commissioned officer in an aviation regiment, a unit responsible for helicopter transport, reconnaissance, and attack missions. The nature of his specific duties on the day he died was not detailed in initial public reports from the Pentagon. His death was one of several suffered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan during the spring of 2005.

He is memorialized on the Afghanistan War casualty lists maintained by the Department of Defense and by independent archives. Operation Enduring Freedom, the conflict in which he served, formally concluded in December 2014, transitioning to the follow-on Operation Freedom's Sentinel.

Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan, began in October 2001 and concluded in December 2014. See the full roster of those killed in this conflict.

Among those documented in the same conflict: Andrews, Evander Earl, Edmunds, Jonn Joseph, Stonesifer, Kristofor Tif, Davis, Bryant Leroy.

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