Christopher Speer Sergeant First Class ( SFC ) Christopher James Speer ( September 9 , 1973 – August 6 , 2002 ) was a U . S . Army combat medic and an armed member of a special operations team who was fatally wounded during a skirmish in Afghanistan on July 27 , 2002 . Speer , who was not wearing a helmet at the time because the mission called for indigenous clothing , suffered a head wound from a grenade and succumbed to his injuries approximately two weeks later . Training and deployment . Speer enlisted in the U . S . Army in July 1992 and , after initial training as a combat medic , was assigned to the Army Hospital at Carlisle Barracks , Pennsylvania until 1994 . He received 18 Delta combat medic training at the Joint Special Operations University at Hurlburt Field , Florida . Speer was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group upon completing training as a Special Forces medic in 1997 . As part of the 1st SFOD - D known as Delta Force which is based at Fort Bragg , North Carolina he deployed to Afghanistan in Spring 2002 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom . Death . On July 27 , 2002 , Christopher Speer and a group of four other soldiers on reconnaissance patrol were injured during a firefight upon attacking and forcibly entering a building in Khost Province , Afghanistan . SFC Christopher Speer was part of a squad assigned the task of going through the ruins of the building after it had been destroyed by F18s dropping 500 - pound bombs . The injured Speer was evacuated by air to Bagram Air Force Base and then to Ramstein Air Base in Germany , where he died on August 6 , 2002 . The incident received widespread attention as fifteen - year - old Toronto - born child soldier Omar Khadr , a Canadian citizen with Egyptian and Palestinian ancestry , was captured and subsequently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay as Speer ' s killer . Khadr later pled guilty to , among other crimes , the murder of Speer by throwing a hand grenade during the firefight . Due to a lack of eyewitness evidence , the claim that Khadr threw the grenade relies heavily or solely on a confession extracted through coercion at a US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay . Prior to his plea of guilty to Speer ' s murder , Khadr became the focus of several legal disputes . On February 4 , 2008 , American officials accidentally released an unredacted version of sworn testimony which — according to Khadr ' s lawyers — showed that Khadr was not responsible for Speer ' s death . In January 2006 Colonel Morris Davis , Khadr ' s prosecutor , in statements to the press , said that Khadr owed his life to American medics who stepped over the dead body of their colleague to treat Khadr ' s wounds . Speer died from his wounds on August 6 , 2002 , at the age of 28 . However , the accidentally - released sworn testimony revealed that medics dressed Speer ' s wounds " before " they dressed Khadr ' s . Aftermath . On the second anniversary of Speer ' s death , SFC Speer ' s widow Tabitha and a comrade of his , Layne Morris , initiated legal proceedings to claim compensation from the estate of Omar Khadr ' s father Ahmed Khadr . On October 25 , 2010 , Khadr pled guilty to murder of Speer in violation of the laws of war , attempted murder in violation of the laws of war , conspiracy , two counts of providing material support for terrorism and spying in the United States . On October 29 , 2010 after taking the stand , Khadr apologized to the widow of Speer for the pain he had caused her , further stating that his eight years in prison had taught him " the beauty of life " . Khadr would be required to serve a minimum of one more year in Guantanamo Bay before repatriation to a Canadian prison ; he was repatriated on September 29 , 2012 to serve the remainder of his sentence at Millhaven Institution near Kingston , Ontario . Legacy . Speer was awarded the Soldier ' s Medal for risking his life to save two Afghan children who were trapped in a minefield on July 21 , 2002 , two weeks before his death . The infirmary at a special forces base in Kunar Province was named the " Christopher J . Speer Medical Clinic " in his memory .