By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

A Lower Mills man became the fourth Dorchester casualty in four months when he was wounded in Iraq on September 14 by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Chris Saunders, 24, was one of four men riding in a Humvee when the vehicle rolled over a roadside bomb. All four escaped with non-life threatening injuries. Saunders broke his leg, punctured an ear drum, and sustained a third degree burn to his neck and cuts and bruises over much of his body.

"He's a gunner, and had a hard time getting out because of what he was doing," said his mother, Celia Saunders of Branchfield Street. "He said there was so much smoke and flames around him, and when he crawled out there was not one thing left of the Humvee."

Saunders was transferred to Germany after the attack. He is in stable condition and has been speaking to his mother by telephone.

"He's just anxious to get back in the U.S. and get better," she said. "He's so grateful that he's not there anymore but he feels bad for all his brothers."

She expects him to be transferred to the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland on Friday.

Saunders was a member of the Marine Reservists' First Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Fourth Marine Division, the same unit of which Savin Hill resident and Boston police officer Sgt. Terrence Shane Burke was a member. Burke lost his leg when the Humvee he was riding in was blown up on September 5.

Saunders' mother said Chris had been assigned to a patrol in the same Humvee that day, but was re-assigned at the last minute.

"They changed him to the front line, to patrolling a rooftop," she said, recalling a phone conversation she had with Chris hours after Burke was injured. "He said he saw the Humvee coming down the road, and saw it blow up. He wanted to tell me that a policeman from Dorchester lost his leg. He was devastated. He's seen too much, done too much."

The Fourth Marine Division is scheduled to return to the United States in October.

"It seems like this is what always happens, that it's always at the changing of the guard," said Celia Saunders.

Chris Saunders is the third soldier with roots in Dorchester to be injured in Iraq by an IED in the past four months. A fourth Dorchester man, Edgardo Zayas of Adams Street, was killed by an IED in August.

Chris Saunders grew up in Dorchester, where his mother has lived since immigrating from Inishowen, Ireland in the 1960s. He attended Don Bosco Technical High School and entered the Marines four years ago.

"[State Senator Jack Hart] called after he found out to ask if I need anything," said Celia Saunders. "I told him all I need is prayers - for our soldiers, for our veterans."