Clearing the Fog of War

New Braunfels salutes fallen Marine

NEW BRAUNFELS — Jake Hixson was to be Sgt. Thomas Spitzer's best man at his wedding, but instead gave his eulogy Monday at St. Paul Lutheran Church before a crowd that spilled into a lobby, while Patriot Guard riders stood outside on a hot afternoon.

The service was followed by a motorcade along Interstate 35 that saw people waiting at an overpass to salute Spitzer and his burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Friends recalled Spitzer as a young man who hewed to an honor code that prompted him to volunteer for a second tour of Afghanistan's most contested province, Helmand, where more coalition troops — 951 — have died than in any other. They searched for an upside to the end of a promising life and found it in the way he lived.

“We are left here today to honor a young man who in his 23 years ... lived life to the fullest,” said the Rev. Don Ofsdahl. “He was more interested in the quality of life than in the quantity of years.”

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/New-Braunfels-salutes-fallen-Marine-5605392.php#/4

Marine from New Braunfels killed in Afghanistan remembered

SAN ANTONIO — Thomas Spitzer and John Felix Farias were tight, playing football together at New Braunfels Canyon High School before joining the Marines.

They went in on the buddy system five years ago, training alongside each other in boot camp and graduating from infantry school before going their separate ways.

When they died, it was in the same place — restive Helmand province, Afghanistan — and almost three years to the day apart.

Spitzer, a sergeant, was killed Wednesday during a combat mission there.

He was 23.

A lance corporal, Farias, 20, died on June 28, 2011.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Marine-from-New-Braunfels-killed-in-Afghanistan-5585804.php

Airman's training saves brother

Airman Basic Shelby Goff joined the Air Force after graduating from high school in Grand Junction, Colo., hoping to improve on her education.

One of the lessons in boot camp was a 40-minute course that taught Goff, 18, how to do CPR, but little did she know how quickly she'd use it.

A day after graduating from basic training, she used the life-saving technique to save her brother Amadeaus Foster, 6, after he nearly drowned in a motel swimming pool here.

“I think it happens when you least expect it,” Goff said Wednesday as she prepared to begin Security Forces training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. “When I was taking the CPR class, I thought this is never going to happen to me ... and when something actually happens it just hits you and you know what to do. You don't have to think twice about it.”

The first in her family to graduate from high school, Goff finished basic training Friday and was relaxing Saturday afternoon with her family at a motel here. At poolside of the Days Inn near downtown, her younger sister had the job of watching Amadeaus, who doesn't yet swim well.

In the moment her sister looked at her phone, he slipped off an inner tube in the shallow end of the pool, hit his head on concrete and fell unconscious. Her sister screamed when she saw a dark spot at the bottom of the pool and dived in.

Goff's training kicked in. The course, given midway through boot camp, taught her to check his “ABCs” — airway, breathing and circulation.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Airman-s-training-saves-brother-3773434.php#ixzz23lGP4gtY