A 17-year Army veteran and a retired police officer turned civilian contractor, both from upstate New York, were among the three American trainers killed in an attack in Afghanistan over the weekend, according to the families of both men.
Lt. Colonel Todd Clark was killed Saturday by an Afghan soldier he was training, relatives and friends told Albany-area media. The 40-year-old Albany native served in the Army's 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum in northern New York.
Those confirming Clark's death include his father, Jack Clark, a retired Army colonel, the Times Union of Albany reported.
"The worst day of my life," he told the newspaper. "We're all just at a loss right now."
The other New Yorker killed was Joseph Morabito of Hunter in Greene County, local media reported. Morabito would have turned 55 on Monday. His wife, Andrea, says her husband was a private security contractor working with Clark as part of a group teaching Afghans how to be police officers.
Officials with the Afghan government say the three Americans were shot on an Afghan National Army base in Paktika province by a man in an Afghan army uniform. The attacker was also killed.
The deaths hadn't been confirmed by the Pentagon as of Monday afternoon.
Local
Morabito arrived in Afghanistan in January. Jack Clark said his son on his second tour in Afghanistan and had done three tours in Iraq. Todd Clark was injured by a roadside bomb in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in July 2010.
Clark was a 1990 graduate of Christian Brothers Academy who entered the Army after earning a degree at Texas A&M University.
In addition to his parents, who live outside Albany, Clark is survived by his wife and their two children, who live near Fort Drum.
