Marine from Harrison injured in Iraq (Jeffrey Combs Jr.)

A Marine who grew up in Harrison has been seriously injured in Iraq, his family and a friend said yesterday.

Cpl. Jeffrey Combs Jr., 22, a 2002 Harrison High School graduate, was injured Thursday. He was on his second tour of duty and had been due to come home in about two weeks, said his father, Jeffrey Combs Sr. of New Milford, Conn.

Combs, a diesel mechanic who worked on tanks, was based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was stationed in the Baghdad area, his father said.

His family has been told he has been stabilized and was to be transferred first to Germany and then to the Washington area for treatment, said his grandmother, Betty Combs of Westerly, R.I.

The Marine Corps has offered to fly Combs' mother, Marie Sniffen of Harrison, to his bedside, but Sniffen was awaiting word on where that would be, Betty Combs said.

"The Marines are being very good to us, and to her," she said. Beyond that, "there's not much we can share," she said.

Betty Combs said the family had been given few details as of yesterday afternoon about what had happened.

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