Shane H. Ahmed
Specialist, Army National Guard
December 9, 1978 – November 14, 2010
Age – 35
Chesterfield, MI
Operation Enduring Freedom
1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Command Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, KY
Killed in Kunar Province, Afghanistan when insurgents attacked their unit with small arms fire.
He was a 1997 graduate of Bedford North Lawrence High School in Bedford, Ind., near Bloomington where he was an excellent student who was very conscientious and well-liked by all of his teachers and other students. Hasan was absolutely a brilliant young man, very respectful and quiet. He would tutor other students in the highest level math classes and the highest level English classes. Ahmed graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind and also attended Ohio State University.
While in high school he received scholarship offers from Rose Hulman University and Butler University. He received grants from the North Lawrence Foundation, Edward Hutton and Wal-Mart. He played varsity football and wrestled on the varsity team. He was a member of the Spanish, math and pep clubs and did Bible study. Hasan came from a great family.
Ahmed joined the Army in April 2007 and was assigned to the 101st Airborne.
NATO on Nov. 18 released the first details on an insurgent attack that killed five U.S. soldiers, saying the Americans were trying to rout militants from a volatile valley in eastern Kunar province when they came under fire.
The area along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan has continued to see heavy fighting as NATO focuses most of its efforts on a troop surge in the south aimed at breaking Taliban strongholds there. The five American soldiers who died Nov. 14 were “conducting clearing operations” when they came under fire in Watapur valley, said Master Sgt. Brian Sipp, a spokesman for the international military alliance.
The soldiers are 27-year-old Spc. Scott Thomas Nagorski of Greenfield, Wis.; 25-year-old Spc. Jesse Adam Snow of Fairborn, Ohio; 26-year-old Spc. Nathan Edward Lillard of Knoxville, Tenn.; 31-year-old Spc. Shane Hasan Ahmed of Chesterfield, Mich.; and 19-year-old Pfc. Christian Michael Warriner of Mills River, N.C.
Sipp did not say how many troops were involved in the fight, nor provide an estimate of the number of attackers. The fighting started about 2 p.m. and lasted at least six hours, he said, with the wounded and the killed not being evacuated until late that evening.
All six deaths occurred during a four-day push called Operation Bulldog Bite to search out militants and weapons caches near the Pech river.
The area has long been a transit route for insurgents coming over from the Pakistan border and has proved a tricky area for U.S. forces trying to secure the mountainous terrain and coax villagers away from supporting the insurgents and criminals who control much of the area.
Watapur is just 5 miles from the Korengal valley, where U.S. troops ceased operations seven months ago, saying that it was not strategically important. Forty-two Americans died in Korengal before the troops pulled out.
Operation Bulldog Bite has killed at least five insurgents, though there have been unconfirmed reports of as many as 49 insurgents killed, said Maj. Mary Constantino, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in the area.
“Operation Bulldog Bite has degraded the insurgents’ ability to terrorize the people of the Pech valley.” In addition, the forces found weapons caches containing mortar systems with rounds, more than a dozen rocket-propelled grenades, 20 anti-aircraft rounds.
His awards include: Bronze Star – 2010, Purple Heart – 2010, Army Commendation Medal – 2010, Army Achievement Medal – 2010, Army Good Conduct Medal – 2010, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal – 2002, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal – 2005,
National Defense Service Medal (2001-Present)) – 2001, Afghanistan Campaign Medal – 2010
Iraq Campaign Medal – 2010, Global War on Terrorism (Expeditionary) – 2004, Global War on Terrorism (Service) – 2003, Humanitarian Service Medal – 2003, Armed Forces Reserve Medal – 2007, Army Service Ribbon – 1999, Army Overseas Service Ribbon – 2009, NATO Non Art 5 ISAF Medal (Afghanistan) – 2010