Goodro: Never Forgotten

Alpha Company 1st Platoon 2/75th Rangers in Baghdad, Iraq. Badmuthers. We just took the city.

Back when Rangers wore the high-and-tight and Americans stood proud & tall.

Pictured are blurred, war-fighting legends riding TC and turret positions. Rangers who I still admire till this day.

My original Maggot Ranger buddy and 240-gun team brother, Dustin Goodro is pictured with his back facing you on the right.

When we returned from Iraq and cleaned up, 1st platoon had to complete a Ranger standard 20-mile ruck march after a combat load C-130 static line jump. It’s a standardized training event.

The day was Sept 11th, 2003. Goodro had a bad jump.

Someone stole the air from his chute and he lost the leap-frog game. Two jumpers traded collapsed parachutes until one hit the ground.

He burned-in and suffered a massive head injury.

When the medevac helo crew delivered him to the doctors at Walter Reed Army Hospital, they said he was unresponsive; yet mumbling the Ranger Creed.

Goodro spent the next 2 years in recovery.

He had to learn how to walk and talk again. He didn’t remember who he was or who his Ranger brothers were.

After two years, his skull was put back together and he finally earned a full medical discharge from the Army. At last, he was going home.

He loaded up his truck and pointed it towards North Dakota.

He signed out of the Army with a lifetime worth of medical disability payments ahead of him. He had his life back and the entire world was at his stoop.

I always imagine the feeling of elation that must have swept through him as he exited Ft. Lewis for the last time. Maybe the sun peeked through the Pacific Northwest rain clouds and illuminated his path. I always wonder about those details.

Tragically, 1 mile after leaving the base, he was in a car accident and died on the scene.

The innocent fender bender caused his airbag to deploy and his weakened skull couldn’t handle the impact. He was 24 years old.

Never forgotten.

RIP Dustin Goodro
10 Nov 1981 – 31 May 2006

___________________________

Scott “Longboard” Chapman served in 2nd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment from 2001-2005. He deployed to Iraq during the 2003 invasion and then to the Afghan theatre 4 times. After the military, Scott worked in the executive protection space and then as an OGA security contractor. Providing security support to the Intelligence community where he deployed 17 times; mostly to the Forward Operating Bases (FOB). He provided security support for Intelligence personnel and operations. Scott continues to work in the contract security area.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.