Member serving in Iraq seriously wounded in New Year's ambush

Emily Smith
ASME NEWS

An ASME member, whose design of a device to protect his fellow platoon members serving in Iraq from improvised explosive devices was profiled in the December issue of ASME NEWS, was seriously wounded in a New Year's Day ambush.

Capt. Jon Kuniholm, platoon commander of 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion attached to 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines (1/23), lost his right arm below the elbow in an ambush, which occurred at Hadithah Dam, about 130 miles northwest of Baghdad. Another member of his platoon was killed in the attack.

After being flown to Germany for initial treatment, Kuniholm was taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Doctors there requested assistance in complex reconstructive surgery from Duke University Medical Center, where he had eight hours of surgery to prepare his arm for a prosthesis. Prior to the deployment of his Marine reserve unit to Iraq, Kuniholm worked at Duke as a graduate research assistant; both his wife and sister were doctoral students there.

In late November, the area of operation for Kuniholm's platoon was expanded and its base of operation moved to Hadithah Dam, a hydroelectric dam located at the southern end of Lake Qadisiyah in Iraq's Al Anbar province, along the Euphrates River. The dam provides power to one-third of Iraq's 25 million people. It is also the site of occasional terrorist attacks.

On New Year's Day, 4th Platoon of the Small Craft Company, an attachment to Kuniholm's platoon that conducts security patrols around the dam, was fired on. Kuniholm joined an on-foot search for those who had fired the shots from the shoreline. During the search, an explosion occurred and a firefight ensued. His arm was lost in the explosion. The source of the explosion — an improvised explosive device, mortar or a rocket-propelled grenade — has not been determined.

Bubba, the device designed by Kuniholm and his partners at Tackle Design to insulate him and others in his platoon from IEDs, was not with him during the search. "Nor would it have helped," Kuniholm said from his room at Duke Medical Center, explaining that devising protection from the unknowns of possible wartime ambush is difficult.

Bubba's protective capabilities, however, had gotten the attention of the Department of Defense. Soon after the ASME NEWS story was posted on ASME.ORG and Tackle Design's Web site, the company was contacted by several DOD departments. Discussions are ongoing.

Meanwhile, the partners at Tackle Design are working on design ideas for a prosthesis for Kuniholm that will give him the dexterity of fingers.

Kevin Webb, a partner who contributed to Bubba's design and construction, said he expects Kuniholm to be as involved in the future development of a prosthesis as he was in Bubba's design. "There's no way to keep him from doing that," Webb said. Like most of the Tackle partners, Kuniholm has a biomedical background.

Design options are likely to occupy Kuniholm's thoughts during a six-month recovery, which he started at home last month.

E-mails from fellow ASME members are welcome at jfk3@duke.edu. But, Kuniholm said, responding may not be possible. "Just recovering here is going to be a full-time job."

 

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