Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995                   TAG: 9511150062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SUSAN TEBBENS LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: GALAX                                LENGTH: Medium

GALAX NATIVE AMONG DEAD IN SAUDI ARABIA

A Galax native was one of six people killed Monday when a bomb destroyed a building filled with military personnel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The family of W.L. Combs Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he was one of five Americans killed in the explosion. Combs was 54.

His wife, Georgetta Combs, who is from Carroll County, suffered multiple broken bones and a skull fracture in the explosion and was taken to a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

The Combses were working as civilians through a contract with the American government. W.L. Combs was a purchasing agent and his wife was a secretary, family members said.

Combs had been in Saudi Arabia since 1992, when he left a civilian position at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Ga., according to his brother-in-law, Milo Cockerham of Galax.

The Combses' son, Jimmy Combs of Appling, Ga., said his father was an administrator for OPM-SANG, the Saudi national guard. He said the Saudi government contracted with the United States to train the national guard.

The $5.6 billion program the Combses worked for was funded by the Saudi government and was operated by the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

Jimmy Combs said his mother, 52, was in stable condition in an American military hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Early Tuesday, the military had publicly identified only one of the Americans killed. Members of the Combs family said they were notified by the government around 10 p.m. Monday.

Combs served on the Galax School Board from August 1982 until he left to work at Fort Gordon in July 1983. He was a graduate of Virginia Tech.

Military officials would not confirm where Georgetta Combs was being treated. A spokeswoman for the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Md., said the injured Americans would probably remain in Saudi hospitals because of the quality of care there.

Jimmy Combs and his brother were to leave Tuesday afternoon for Saudi Arabia. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

Keywords:
FATALITY