Shane Holton
Specialist, United States Army
January 8, 1992 – November 14, 2013
Age – 21
Goodrich, MI
184th Military Intelligence Company, Brigade
Troops Battalion, 1st Stryker Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division,
Fort Wainwright, Fairbanks, Alaska
Died of an undetected heart problem at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska
Shane Michael Holton, 21, of Goodrich passed away suddenly on November 14, 2013. Shane graduated from Goodrich High School in 2011.
While in high school he was active in the Scholastic Clay Target Program winning numerous medals for his skeet shooting accomplishments. He also participated in the CANUSA games for skeet shooting. Throughout high school he was employed at the Grand Blanc Huntsman Club, where he was always willing to instruct potential new members and lend advice to long standing members. He loved the outdoors and enjoyed duck and deer hunting. He liked music, playing XBOX and was active in the Fairbanks Car Club having recently purchased his first car. Shane wanted to travel the world and had just returned from a Joint Training Exercise in Korea. Shane was kindhearted and loved playing with the family dogs, Jetta and Emma, he was especially fond of his cat “Precious”. Shane was outgoing and positive and always had a smile on his face. In 1993, Shane was a featured child on The Children’s Miracle Network for overcoming the odds of being born a micro preemie, weighing 1 pound 8 ounces at birth. Shane is survived by his parents Thomas and Linda Holton and his brother Tom all of Goodrich.
“He said ‘I want to serve my country,’” she said. “That was a pretty big statement.”
After completing high school, Shane Holton entered basic training at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. While at first he thought about being a bomb technician, he later decided to make a go at intelligence, given his fondness for all things technological, his father said.
His parents traveled down to Fort Jackson for Holton’s basic training graduation ceremony. Tom Holton recalled the graduates coming out of the trees following some fanfare with flash grenades and smoke bombs just prior to their arrival.
“All of a sudden you hear a roar and they’re all coming out of the woods and they’re in their companies and units and everything,” he said. “It was really special.
“He had changed so much. Like I tell everybody, he was his own man,” Tom Holton said. “(We were) very proud of him and you could see him beaming in his eyes.”
Soon after, Shane Holton was sent to Fort Huachuca, Ariz. for advanced individual training, before he was asked to choose his next destination. After putting in a strong recommendation for Germany, Holton was sent to Fort Wainwright in July 2012.