FORT BENNING, Ga. - SGT Lucas Beachnaw didn't attend the dedication for the 173rd Airborne Brigade National Memorial June 1. But his family did. Lucas, assigned to 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, was the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team's first fatality this deployment.
The 23-year-old from Lowell, Mich., died Jan. 13 in Darya Ya, Afghanistan, after enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire.
"He was shot three times," said his father, Kevin Beachnaw, while waiting for the Walk of Honor dedication ceremony, which was before 173rd's ceremony.
"He was the 'Top Gun' when he graduated from sniper school," Beachnaw said. "We went to the school and saw the plaque with his name inscribed in it. He was proud of that."
Lucas Beachnaw's name will be inscribed in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Memorial as are all the names of the Sky Soldiers who were killed in action.
"Then and now, it's the spirit in men's hearts that make the brigade what it is," said BG James Yarbrough, former commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
"It's leaders and Soldiers who turn a good unit into a brave unit. Sky Soldiers believe they are a special brigade with a special purpose and a special history. It is prouder, braver and better than all the rest." Yarbrough, a former assistant commandant of the Infantry School, took command of the brigade when it was reactivated June 12, 2000, in Vicenza, Italy, and served until 2002.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate) was activated March 26, 1963, on the island of Okinawa.
The longest serving unit in continuous combat, the brigade served in all four South Vietnam Corps' areas during its 6-and-one-half-year deployment. On Feb. 22, 1967, the Sky Soldiers conducted the only combat parachute assault of the Vietnam War, part of Operation Junction City. The unit deactivated Jan. 14, 1972.
On March 26, 2003, the unit conducted a mass parachute assault into Bashur, Northern Iraq.
Today, the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team is deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
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