Their Story
Remembering Salvatore S. Corma II.
1st Lt. Salvatore Corma was an officer serving in the First Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, United States Army.
Corma lived on Wayne Court, Wenonah with his mother and father, Trudy and Salvatore Corma. He attended St. Augustine Preparatory School in Richland, NJ and graduated from West Point in 2008.
Corma was killed in action in Zabul Province, Afghanistan on April 29, 2010. Here is an account given by Sgt. Michael T. Herne of Corma’s final hours: “On 29 April, we went out on a combat patrol (and) we were on our way back. The Taliban like to emplace things called Improvised Explosive Devices.
I am Sal’s first squad leader, so I am generally in the lead vehicle. On the route back to our Forward Operating Base there’s a bridge we have to cross. The TB (Taliban) like to emplace those IEDs in places where they know our trucks have to drive. As the truck commander for the lead truck, I dismounted and cleared the bridge and just after the bridge for any disturbed earth or anything that would be suspicious of an IED emplacement.
I saw a spot (in) the center of the road just after the bridge that looked funny, so I dug down with my hands and uncovered an anti-tank mine. I immediately called Sal as my commanding officer and the patrol leader. He came up and checked out the site. We then began to cordon off the area so no local nationals got hurt and no U.S. personnel would get hurt.
When we find an IED, we have to mark the site so the explosive ordnance disposal guys can quickly and safely ID the site and get rid of it. Sal said he would do that. He ordered me and our weapons squad leader away and began to move toward the site with a VS-17 panel (a very bright orange piece of fabric that we use in the military for IDing locations.) While moving to mark the location, he stepped on the pressure plate, which completed the circuit and triggered the mine to explode.
Sal died instantly. He didn’t feel any pain. Sal, without a doubt, saved my life when he ordered me and the others away. He knew full well the risk of what he was doing, as we have both done things like this before.”
Corma was given Full Military Honors and Committal Blessing at the Gloucester County Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Williamstown and was laid to rest in the West Point Cemetery, West Point, N.Y.
Corma was awarded the Purple Heart Medal. The soldiers who served under him have started procedures to have Corma awarded our nation’s highest honor, the Congressional Medal Of Honor.