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Dane R. Balcon Memorial Park
Assigned to the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rdBrigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
SPC Dane Balcon was killed September 5, 2007, when an IED detonated near his unit. On the day that SPC Balcon was killed, Dane was scheduled to be off duty, but his commitment to his country and service led him to volunteer for the mission when his team needed another member. Army CPL William “Billy” Warford was also killed.
Born in 1988 at Luke AFB in Arizona, SPC Dane R. Balcon was destined to serve. It came as no surprise to his family that at only three years old, he told his mother he wanted to be a soldier as Dane was born to a family rich in service. He was fourth generation military. Dane had a great-great grandfather who served in WWI at the age of 20, two great grandfathers who served during WWII, a grandfather who served in Vietnam, and is the son of a father that served during the Balkans conflict and a Mother with a 22-year-long Air Force career.
In High School, Dane spent his time in the ROTC program to prepare for his future in the military, and in his senior year, served as the Drill Team Commander of his ROTC unit. He also had a love for playing the snare drum, despite not knowing how to read sheet music. Dane was never one to shy away from a challenge, especially when he believed in himself, so Dane used his passion to become the first-chair snare player on the drum line.
Dane graduated from High Sand Creek High school and enlisted in to the Army in 2007 after attending a semester of college classes. He attended Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma before deploying to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Balad, Iraq on July 7, 2007 at the age of 19-years-old.
“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Dane and the ultimate price he paid and the supreme sacrifice he made for a cause he felt was far greater than himself,” his mother, Carla Sizer, said. “He truly believed in what he was doing and was so proud to have the opportunity to be a soldier and to serve his country.”
The Bronze Star recipient lived a passionate life, fighting earnestly for what he believed in, in the hopes that one day he would help provide the possibility of peace and the chance of a good life for those who had suffered.
When he was just a senior in high school, Dane was asked to write about his greatest fear in an essay, stating:
“When I go, I hope that they remember me and what I did. [I was] once asked what my fear was and I said that mine was failure which is true. But my greatest fear, the thing I fear most is being forgotten, because I will never forget what I have done. I will never forget those days in the sun… thriving in my moments with my brothers in hard earned glory.”
SPC Dane Balcon was 19 years old from Glendale, Arizona.
American Fallen Soldiers - https://americanfallensoldiers.com/army-spc-dane-balcon/
This park memorial also recognizes those who have served to protect us and the freedoms that we enjoy today. Please come by to enjoy the park and honor those that sacrificed for us.
Balcon Park is owned and managed by Woodmen Hills Parks and Rec. For park hours and support click the link above.
Do you have additional information about the fallen soldiers on our memorial wall? Click Here to email us your information and we will review it to add to our our database
Picture | Name | Rank | Branch | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Alex D. Wolfsie | AN | US Navy | Alex David Wolfsie passed away on March 10, 2014, as a result of a tragic accident. Alex entered military service with the US Navy on September 25, 2012. After completing basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station north of Chicago, he was sent to Pensacola, Florida to commence his training to be an Avionics Technician. His next stop was San Diego, California for additional training. Alex was then deployed to Guam, arriving there on October 16, 2013, and was undergoing final training before he was to be detached to the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, based in Japan.
Alex will be remembered fondly by his friends and family for his ever present smile, his ability to make anybody laugh and for brightening our lives. The saying there are no strangers, only friends he didn’t meet was never more true than for Alex. But perhaps the best way to put into words the life of someone who was taken from us much too young is to say that Alex wasn’t everybody’s best friend but he was the best friend everybody’s ever had.
https://www.cargainfuneralhomes.com/home/index.cfm?action=public:obituaries.view&o_id=2456210&fh_id=10350
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Andrew Mark Shaffer Council | SGT | US Army | August 3, 1990 - October 12, 2013 (age 23)
Andrew Mark Schaffer Council, age 23, of Lakewood CO, passed away October 12, 2013. He is survived by his parents Karl Council and Pamela Schaffer. Interned at Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver.
https://www.horancares.com/obituary/Andrew-Mark-Schaffer-Council/Lakewood-CO/1304455
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Blake A. Harris | SGT | US Army | Assigned to 1st Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
Army SGT Blake Harris was killed March 5, 2007, by a command-detonated improvised explosive device near his unit in Baqubah, Iraq. Also killed were SPC Ryan D. Russell and PVT Barry W. Mayo. SGT Harris was serving his second deployment to Iraq when he was killed.
Blake Harris was born April 25, 1984, to parents John and Deborah in Denver, Colorado. He would be the couple’s first and only son. Blake had worked long and hard to be in the Army—After spending three years with the ROTC at South High School in Pueblo, Colorado, he enlisted in the Army after his graduation in 2002. His mother, Deborah, said her son made his decision after a recruiter came to campus. “He came home and said, ‘Mom, I’m going to join the Army. I’m going to serve my country,’” she recalled. “It was in his blood for sure.” Blake’s father had spent 11 years in the 1st Cavalry Division during Vietnam and Blake followed suit, serving in the 1st Cavalry just like his father.
Blake was a self-described class clown. He was known in his close circle to be a ‘master barbecuer’ and his family often teased that he could take forever it seemed to barbecue a chicken, but at least he was good at it. Blake was also a talented wood-worker, but the favorite of his favorite hobbies, besides listening to music where he boasted a very large CD collection, was skateboarding. He had been among a group of teenagers who had lobbied City Council to create a skateboard park for the Pueblo youth. In the spring of 2010, city skate park was officially renamed the “Sergeant Blake A. Harris Skateboard Park.” At the parks re-naming, CPT Lisa Northway, a Fort Carson chaplain, praised Blake for being a role model for Pueblo’s young people. “They will be inspired by Blake Harris and his life,” she told the audience, which included more than a dozen skateboarders in T-shirts and jeans, who were perched on the park’s concrete ramps and steps to listen in the sunshine; it wasn’t hard for his family to imagine Blake among them.
SGT Blake Harris is survived by his parents, John and Deborah Harris; wife, Joanna; and son, Jonah.
https://americanfallensoldiers.com/army-sgt-blake-a-harris/
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Brian D. Allgood | COL | US Army | By TOM ROEDER, THE GAZETTE
A Colorado Springs native serving as the top American medical officer in Iraq died in a Sunday January 20, 2007 helicopter crash in Baghdad. Col. Brian D. Allgood, 46 and a 1978 graduate of Air Academy High School, was a doctor in the Army before becoming the command surgeon of Multi-National Forces Iraq, the American military command in Baghdad, his mother Cleo Allgood of Colorado Springs said.
He was one of 12 soldiers killed when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed at 3 p.m. Sunday in northeast Baghdad. The crash remains under investigation, but Iraq security forces leaders have said it was likely shot down by insurgents. The son of an Army doctor and Vietnam veteran, retired Col. Gerald Allgood, Brian Allgood decided in his junior year at Air Academy to follow the family tradition. He won an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point and excelled academically, earning a slot in the University of Oklahoma medical school. “He was very brilliant,” Cleo Allgood said. But Allgood wanted to be more than just a doctor. He was a top-notch soldier who served as a battalion surgeon in the 75th Ranger Regiment and parachuted into Panama in the 1989 Operation Just Cause.
His mother said the stint with the Rangers, some of the nation’s toughest airborne troops, fit right in with Allgood’s competitive streak. The hard-charging Allgood tempered his personality with a quick wit and an easy smile, she said. “He had a very good, dry sense of humor,” his mother said. He rose through the military ranks, becoming a full colonel in 2002 and serving in top medical posts in Korea and Germany before he was ordered to Iraq. “He was looking forward to doing the job and from what we hear he was doing a great job,” Cleo Allgood said. Brian Allgood was married to another West Point graduate, Jane Allgood, who is living in Germany with their son, 11-year-old Wyatt. “Brian was a wonderful human being,” his mother said. “He was a wonderful brother, son, husband and father. He just was a giving person who served his country.”
https://iraqwarheroes.org/allgood.htm
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Caleb Medley | SSG | USMC | Sgt Caleb M. Medley
Died: February 26, 2013
Marine Corps officials identified a Marine killed Tuesday in a parachuting accident in Perris, Calif., as Sgt. Caleb M. Medley, 26.
Medley, of La Junta, Colo., was an assistant radio operator with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion at Camp Pendleton, 1st Marine Division officials said in a news release.
The accident happened during military training at about 3 p.m. near Perris Valley Airport, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. “He ended up landing just north of the airport,” in a fenced-in storage lot, said Sgt. Lisa McConnell, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman. Firefighters responded to the scene, but he was dead when they arrived, McConnell said.
Division officials are investigating the cause of the accident. No other details about the incident were released. Perris Valley Airport is located about 30 miles north of Camp Pendleton.
Medley, an Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran, enlisted in May 2005, according to the division. His military awards and decorations include the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with "V" and two Combat Action Ribbons.
https://www.forcerecon.com/sgt-caleb-medley
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Carl J Bryant | SGT | US Army | ||
Christopher A. Anderson | HM3 | US Navy | HM3 US Navy
1st Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, out of Camp Lejeune, NC
A graduate of Longmont CO High School, he enlisted in the US Navy in August 2005. While awaiting his Navy school starting date, he competed with Navy SEAL candidates and excelled in Navy academics. At boot camp, he was the honor graduate, voted #1 in his class by his peers and senior staff, and went on to hospital corpsman medical training and advanced combat medical training. He was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq on September 6, 2006 and while there, he earned the affectionate title of "Doc", a title given to Navy hospital corpsmen that have impressed their US Marine Corps counterparts with medical excellence under field combat conditions. He died as a result of enemy action. He was promoted posthumously to the rank of US Navy Corpsman HM3.
Interment on December 27, 2006.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16925844/christopher-alan-anderson
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Christopher R. Thibodeau | CW2 | US Army | Chief Warrant Officer Christopher R. Thibodeau, 28, of Chesterland, Ohio, died May 26 in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his helicopter crashed during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas. Thibodeau's awards and decorations include an Air Medal, two Army Achievement Medals, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Noncommissioned Officers Professional Development Ribbon and Army Service Ribbon. He was the beloved husband of LeeSandra of Copperas Cove, TX and the dear son of Robert and Doreen Thibodeau of Chesterland, OH. Chris was the dear brother of Nicole M. Vodicka (Nicholas) of Flower Mound, TX and Michael A. Thibodeau (fiancé, Alison Smith) of Chesterland, OH and the beloved grandson of Dora Walker of Dedham, MA. He was also survived by his Yorkie, Moony Love and his Akita, Nolan Ryan.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70473959/christopher-r.-thibodeau
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Christopher W. Rowland | SPC | US Army | Spc. Christopher W. Rowland, age 21, passed away August 16, 2009 in Teller County, Colorado. He was born on March 3, 1988 in Colorado Springs to William J. and Deborah K. Rowland. He was in the military from 2006 to present, serving in Iraq for 15 months. Army awards include Army Commendation Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal with Bronze Service Star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Driver and Mechanic Badge, Weapons Qualification Badge and Overseas Service Bar. He was also an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Widefield High School in 2006. He is survived by his parents, grandmother, June Wallerstedt and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/christopher-rowland-obituary?pid=131609459
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Clint H. Loughmiller JR | SSG | US Army | Staff Sergeant Clint Loughmiller, age 29, of Colorado Springs, stationed with the US Army at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, passed away on May 7, 2011 in Fayetteville, NC. Clint was born on October 11, 1981 in Roswell NM. As a child, Clint enjoyed drawing, music, movies, reading, and spending time with his family. He was a brilliant artist and loved the outdoors. Clint graduated in 2001 from CIVA High School in Colorado Springs. Growing up, Clint had a love for his Japanese culture. He continued in the way of Samurai honor by becoming a master of both the making and wielding of weapons. Clint enjoyed shooting and became a very accomplished marksman. Clint was very talented, and whatever he did, he was a master of his craft. For Clint, becoming an Army Special Forces Green Beret was always his dream from early childhood. Clint joined the army as was a war hero. He served honorably and was decorated for his three war time deployments, two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. After his last deployment, Clint distinguished himself and was chosen to be a candidate for Special Forces Selection School. Clint was a born leader. He led by example demanding no more of anyone than he demanded of himself, which was perfection. People were instantly drawn to him. He had a fantastic sense of humor and was very intelligent and quick witted. Clint loved to travel and he was much beloved in every country he visited from Hungary to the Middle East. In 2003 Clint met the love of his life, Adrienn, and they were married on Valentine's Day 2004. After 8 blissful years of marriage, Adrienn gave birth to their daughter Emma Juliet. Clint was a loving and giving father. He provided for his family so that they would never have any worries or want for anything. He protected them and sacrificed for them. Clint is survived by his wife, Adrienn Loughmiller and daughter, Emma J. Loughmiller of Fayetteville, his mother, June Wigglesworth, grandmother Eiko Wigglesworth, brother William Loughmiller of Honolulu, HI, his father, Bill Loughmiller of Colorado Springs, and brother David Loughmiller of New York.
https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/clint-loughmiller-obituary?pid=150980409
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Dane R. Balcon | SPC | US Army | SPC Dane R. Balcon was born on 27 April 1988, at Luke AFB, Arizona. In 2007, he enlisted in the Army as a Fire Support Specialist, following graduation from Sand Creek High School, Colorado Springs. He attended Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training with 2nd Platoon, Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 40th Field Artillery Regiment, at Fort Sill, OK. Upon graduation from AIT, SPC Balcon received his first assignment to 3rd Squadron 8th Cavalry Regt., 1st Cavalry Division, in Fort Hood, TX. He deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Balad, Iraq on 7 July 2007 and on 5 September 2007 he completed his mission-doing what he loved - serving his country. SPC Balcon is survived by his mother Carla, her husband Larry Sizer, his brothers Grant and Quinn. Dane is also survived by his father John Balcon and his wife Claire, their children Samuel, Joshua, Brianna, and his sister Allegra, Grandparents CMSgt (ret) Stephen B. Thomas, Jr. (Suzanne), Cynthia B. Thomas, Ernesto Balcon (Yvonne), Kathleen Sizer, Alexie Sizer, Godparents CMSgt (ret) James Davis (Lt Col (ret) Bettye), his Uncle Steve (Trina), Aunts Debbie (Charles), Karen, and Yolanda (Eddie), and a host of great Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, friends, brother-in-arms, and a loving country. Awards and ribbons that SPC Balcon earned while serving his country include: The Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal, Combat Action Badge, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Global War On Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Weapons Qualification Badge – Expert w/Rifle. | |
Daniel A. Bader | SSG | US Army | 28 year-old SSG Daniel Bader of York, Neb.; assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Tiger Squadron, Fort Carson, Colo.; killed Nov. 2, 2003 in an attack on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter near Fallujah, Iraq.
He joined the National Guard shortly after graduating from high school, going through basic training when he was 17 and joining the Army when he was 18.
“He loved it, absolutely loved the military,” his wife said. “He was excited. He wanted to serve his country. I was terrified.”
He left with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment for Iraq on April 4. He specialized in anti-aircraft work but was sent to war against an enemy that lacked an air force. He and his troops adapted, learning security tasks that included guarding U.S. convoys. The soldiers of Predator Battery proved just as effective in their new role; not one supply convoy even had a rock thrown at it.
It was the Fourth of July, and Predator Battery was going to hold a barbeque with whatever it could find. No one knows where Daniel came up with the 150 chickens, or the salad, or the baked potatoes. He was well known for caring for the troops under his command and took responsibility for providing dinner to 180 soldiers in Iraq.
He is survived by his wife Tiffany and daughter.
https://www.fallenheroesproject.org/?p=3108
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