Army Spc. Shane H. Ahmed

Remember Our Heroes

Army Spc. Shane H. Ahmed, 31, of Chesterfield, Mich.

Spc Ahmed was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; died Nov. 14, 2010 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Army Spc. Shane Hasan Ahmed, a highly decorated soldier from Chesterfield Township, was killed on Sunday when his unit was fired upon by insurgents in Afghanistan.

He was the second Macomb area soldier to lose his life recently while fighting in Afghanistan. Army Pfc. Shane M. Reifert of Cottreville, a graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School in Marine City, was killed Nov. 6.

Both men were assigned to the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Ky.

“He was a very, very nice son,” said his mother, Subra Ahmed from her Briartown subdivision home in the area of 21 Mile Road-Interstate 94. A native of Bangladesh, Ahmed said her son was married and had a stepson and stepdaughter. She said she had just received word that her son was killed in action and was too upset to talk further.

In a statement issued Wednesday by the Pentagon, Spc. Ahmed and other soldiers were conducting operations in Konar province when they were attacked with small arms.

Pfc. Ahmed had received several awards from the Army including the Army Commendation Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.

He was a 1997 graduate of Bedford North Lawrence High School in Bedford, Ind., near Bloomington. His high school guidance counselor, Becky Sprinkle, now the director of counseling at the school, said Ahmed was an excellent student who was very conscientious and well-liked by all of his teachers and other students.

Sprinkle said he has a brother, Asif Ahmed, and that his father, Jamaluddin, and mother were big supporters of the school. “Hasan was absolutely a brilliant young man,” Sprinkle said. “He was very respectful and quiet. It is so sad to hear what happened to this young man who had a bright future.

“I especially remember him tutoring other students in our highest level math classes and our highest level English classes.”

Ahmed graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. He 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,” Sprinkle said. “His father was an engineer.”
Jamaluddin Ahmed worked at PRG, a manufacturing firm, in Bedford.

The Ahmed family moved to Bedford, Ind., from Wakefield, R.I., where they lived from 1994 to 2001. Ahmed joined the Army in April 2007.

He is survived by his wife, Eva Vasquez; stepdaughter Evita Vasquez; stepson Evan Vasquez of Lebanon, Tenn., his brother Asif, and his parents, Jamal and Subra Ahmed of Chesterfield Township.

Army Spc. Shane H. Ahmed was killed in action on 11/14/10.