Soldier from Florida among 6 Fort Stewart soldiers killed

6 Stewart-based soldiers killed in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 14, 2013

ATLANTA — A Fort Stewart spokesman says six soldiers based at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield have died this week in Afghanistan.

Defense Department officials said Wednesday that 26-year-old Staff Sgt. Rex L. Schad, of Edmond, Okla., was killed Monday by small arms fire in the Jalrez District, west of Kabul. Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin M. Larson said Schad joined the Army in 2006, served in the 3rd Infantry Division and was on his second deployment.

21-year-old Spc. Zachary L. Shannon of Dunedin, Fla., was killed Monday night with four other American service members when their helicopter crashed in Kandahar province.
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UPDATE March 16, 2013

Helicopter crash killing 5 stuns Ft. Stewart
By Russ Bynum
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 15, 2013

The Army notified the Scialdo family of his death late Monday, Susan Scialdo said. The shock was compounded by the fact that the soldier's 93-year-old grandfather had died just two days earlier.

SAVANNAH, Ga. — As a crew chief aboard Black Hawk helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army Staff Sgt. Marc Scialdo made his family so proud back home in Florida that his parents and siblings gave him a nickname: "the Golden Boy."

"He made our family shine," the 31-year-old soldier's mother, Susan Scialdo, said Friday. "He lifted us all. He was just an awesome individual. Always helpful, always shining."

Now Scialdo's family in Naples, Fla., and those of the soldiers he flew with are grieving, along with the fellow aviators who trained and served beside them at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah. Five soldiers, including Scialdo, died Monday when their UH-60 Black Hawk crashed, making it the deadliest day so far this year for U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan.

While his mother confirmed Scialdo was killed in the crash, the Army by Friday afternoon still had not released names of the soldiers who died. Maj. Gen. Robert A. Abrams, commanding general for Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, said Wednesday from Afghanistan the crew was flying a routine training mission using night-vision goggles. No enemy attacks were reported, but the cause of the crash was still being investigated. .

The deaths stunned Army soldiers and families of the 3rd Infantry Division in southeast Georgia, and the fatalities didn't end with the Black Hawk crash. The Army identified Fort Stewart-based Staff Sgt. Rex L. Schad, 26, of Edmond, Okla., as one of two U.S. soldiers killed Monday in what Afghan officials said was a machine gun attack by one of their own policemen. Another Fort Stewart soldier, 26-year-old Spc. David T. Proctor of Greensboro, N.C., died Wednesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from noncombat injuries he suffered in Afghanistan 10 days earlier.
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