Family recalls Shane Austin; died saving others from grenade

When Shane Austin was a boy, he and his brothers, Kyle and Justin, built a soapbox racer that Shane proceeded to ride down the roof of a barn.

The three of them were a team, their dad says. Devoted to one another and to their friends. Daredevils. Afraid of nothing.

And so Terry Austin wasn’t entirely surprised to hear that a similar blend of courage and loyalty led to his 19-year-old son’s death in Iraq.

The Department of Defense reported that Pfc. Shane Austin, who grew up in Edgerton, died last weekend in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, of injuries caused by enemy grenade fire. The Army is investigating the death.

What is known is that someone tossed a grenade down the hatch of the M1 A2 Abrams Maine battle tank that Shane Austin was in.

Shane’s tank commander told Terry Austin that Shane grabbed it and tried to throw it back out.

“It ended up going off, and he took the force of it all,” Terry Austin said. “In my eyes, my son was a hero.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Austin will be honored during a Veterans Day event at Gardner Edgerton High School, which he attended until August 2004.

His name will be added to a memorial there that honors the school’s veterans, said teacher Walt Cochran, who remembers Austin as a quiet student who sat in the back of his junior-level U.S. history class.

The student’s interest in the military was clear to Cochran.

“Anything we talked about in class that had to do with the military or World War II or the Korean War, that was stuff he was interested in,” Cochran said.

Austin told Cochran he was especially moved when veterans visited the school and shared their stories at a living history activity.

“He was a quiet kid who just went about his business,” Cochran recalled. “He knew what he was going to do.”

The Austin family has a history of serving the country, Terry Austin said. Shane wanted to be like his dad, uncles and grandfather.

“He wanted to go and defend his country,” Terry Austin said. He also wanted to be a Navy Seal and was trying to convince his older brother, Justin, to enlist, too.

Justin recalled his brother’s tenacity and courage.

“He never backed down,” Justin Austin said.

Shane was a bit on the wild side before he left in January for boot camp in Fort Knox, Ky., his dad said.

“But when he came back from basic, he stood tall, his chest puffed up,” Terry Austin said. “He stared you straight in the eye. He had a firm handshake.”

His mother, Debbie Austin, noticed the change, too.

“How proud he was, how much respect he had for himself,” she said. “You could see it in his face, in his eyes, in the way he carried himself.”

It’s the memory she’s holding as she mourns his death.

“I’m heavy-hearted but proud,” she said.

When she put Shane on the plane for Germany in June — he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armor Division based in Baumholder — Debbie thought she would see him again in December.

“We knew the serious thing he was doing,” she said. “We just didn’t realize how serious. The reality didn’t hit us until the day he left for Iraq.”

Debbie Austin last spoke to her son Saturday when he called home, something he had done often since he joined the Army.

“His last words to me were ‘I’ll talk to you in a day or two, Mom, I love you,’ ” she said. “And I was able to tell him how proud I was of him. I told him that every time I spoke to him.”

From the Kansas City Star

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Shane R. Austin killed by enemy grenade