Navy Lt. Christopher E. Mosko

Died April 26, 2012 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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28, of Pittsford, N.Y.; assigned to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, Afghanistan, out of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3 in San Diego; died April 26 while conducting combat operations in Nawa district, Ghazni province, Afghanistan. Also killed were Army Staff Sgt. Brandon Eggleston and Army Sgt. Dick Lee Jr.

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New York flags to fly at half-staff to honor sailor

The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. — Flags on state government buildings will fly at half-staff on Wednesday in honor of a naval officer who died in Afghanistan last week.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed that flags be flown at half-staff to honor Lt. Christopher Mosko, whose family lived for several years in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford. He died during combat operations in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.

Mosko was assigned as a Navy Ordnance Disposal Platoon Commander to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force. He was stationed in San Diego.

The Defense Department said Mosko listed Pittsford as his home town because his parents lived there. He went to high school in Wisconsin and graduated from Drexel University in Philadelphia.

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Sailor killed in Afghanistan remembered as 'very dedicated'

The Associated Press

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — A Navy lieutenant who was killed in Afghanistan is being remembered in the Wisconsin city where he attended high school as a well-rounded student and passionate soccer player.

Christopher Mosko, 28, was one of three troops killed Thursday by a bomb in Afghanistan's Ghazni province. While the Defense Department listed him as being from the Rochester, N.Y., suburb of Pittsford, his family says they lived there for several years but that he was born in Philadelphia and was living in San Diego.

Mosko was a 2002 graduate of Eau Claire Memorial High School who participated in soccer, swimming and show choir. His family moved away not long after he graduated, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reported Sunday.

"He was a fine young man," said Ken De Meuse, whose son Nick played soccer with Mosko from youth league through high school.

"He took himself and the game of soccer pretty seriously," he said. "He was always one of the first on the field to practice and one of the last to leave. He was very dedicated."

De Meuse told the newspaper one of his favorite sports memories was of the young men's last soccer season at Memorial in 2001. The team advanced to the state tournament but lost in the semifinal to Marquette University High School, which went on to win the state championship.

Retired Memorial High School choir director George Utphall also had positive memories of Mosko.

"He was a hard worker. Very self-directed. Very likable," Utphall recalled. "He had a strong sense of community and stick-to-itiveness, of doing his best."

Marty Hendricks, who coached Mosko in youth soccer from age 12 to 15 and whose son Chad played on the same Memorial team, said Mosko was an excellent student and was good at several sports but really loved soccer.

"He was fearless," Hendricks said. "He was a team captain for both us and Eau Claire Memorial. ... Chris could have done anything he wanted, but he had a passion for the military and followed that dream."

The Defense Department says Mosko commanded an explosives disposal platoon with the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force. He was based in San Diego.