DANVILLE, OH, USA U.S. Army SSG, COMPANY B, 3D BATTALION, 160TH SOAR, HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD, GA ASADABAD, AFGHANISTAN 06/28/2005
Six vintage hot rods led a funeral procession through streets of town as a tribute to one of the passions of a soldier killed in helicopter crash in Afghanistan with 15 other servicemen.
About 500 people at the funeral Tuesday drove behind the hot rods to the cemetery, passing under a flag hung between two raised fire truck ladders in honor of Army Staff Sergeant Shamus Goare, 29.
Goare was on a special operations mission June 28 to rescue four Navy SEALs missing in mountains near the Pakistani border when the MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down.
“We are here celebrating in freedom made possible by Staff Sergeant Shamus and his crew,” said the Rev. F. Richard Snoke at the funeral. “Shamus loved his family, loved his country. He loved his community and, oh yes, he loved his street rods.”
Goare graduated from high school in 1994 in the town about 50 miles northeast of Columbus. He was 17 at the time and fooled his mother, Judy, into signing his enlistment form, family said. He had lived in Georgia, where his unit was based, for about five years, and he recently bought a house in Rincon.
Friends and family say Goare would have been embarrassed by the attention from Danville residents.
“He was an unassuming young man,” Army chaplain Jim McNeely said. “He did not seek fame and fortune.”
As a member of the Night Stalkers special operations unit, Goare couldn’t tell his family what he was doing. After Goare was buried — once ‘Taps’ had been played and the Army honor guard had folded the flag draping his coffin — one more tribute was made. The hot rod drivers revved their engines and squealed their tires sending a plume of smoke billowing from the blacktop.
Goare joined the Army in 1994 as Huey helicopter repairer. He attended Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson, S.C. and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Rucker, Ala.
In June 2000, Goare was assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Training Company and upon completion of the Basic Mission Qualification Course (Green Platoon) was assigned as a flight engineer for Company B, 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.
His military awards and decorations include the Air Medal for valor, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Multinational Forces and Observers Medal, and the Kuwaiti Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, and the Senior Army Aviator Badge. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal for valor and the Combat Action Badge.
He is survived by his parents Charles and Judith Goare, of Danville, Ohio.