Among the five U.S. Army Special Operations soldiers who lost their lives in an MH-60 Blackhawk crash in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend was a graduate of Gonzaga University’s Army ROTC.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34; Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26; Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27; and Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24 were the men who lost their lives during the refueling training flight.
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, was made up of all five of these individuals.
According to CBS News, Barnes, a 2011 graduate of Gonzaga University, is survived by his wife and two young daughters, aged one and five.
A California native, Barnes graduated from Jesuit High School in Sacramento in 2007. He received a full-ride scholarship to Gonzaga through the university’s Army Reserve Officers Training Corps, according to Jesuit High School’s student publication, Plank.
Barnes said to Plank, “I signed up to keep the evils that plague our world out of my country as best I can.” “I chose to defend those I love as the legacy I leave behind.”
Jamie Aitken, a spokesman for Gonzaga, verified that Barnes participated in the Army ROTC program at Gonzaga. According to Plank, he placed among the top 10% of ROTC grads nationwide upon graduation.
Following his 2011 English literature bachelor’s degree from Gonzaga, Barnes trained as a helicopter pilot at Fort Novosel (formerly Fort Rucker) in Alabama, as reported by Sacramento’s ABC 10-TV. After serving in South Korea, he piloted aircraft in Afghanistan and Iraq. Barnes’ decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor device, Air Medal with Combat device and the Army Commendation
Fellow service member Reanna Walton told ABC that Barnes was an amazing leader and “his smile lit the room up.”“He also loved his soldiers and took care of us no matter what the need was,” she said.
