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POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

Custer son, soldier laid to rest

Spc. Aaron Aamot was a son and a brother, a friend and a soldier, and Saturday, Nov. 14, he was finally home.

Aamot was laid to rest Saturday in the Haynie Cemetery in Custer, more than a week after he was killed in Afghanistan, when the vehicle he was driving went over a bomb in the road. Hundreds gathered for a service at Ferndale High School, where Aamot graduated in 2006.

"Aaron had a much bigger family than we realized," said his brother, Matt Aamot. "He really was a son and a brother to Whatcom County. The whole family has been so overwhelmed and appreciative of the support."

Aamot, 22, was the fifth of eight children raised by Mark and Julie Aamot on a small farm in Custer. He loved FFA, 4-H and fighting for the Union in Civil War re-enactments with his family. Re-enactment soldiers from the north and south came in their uniforms for Aamot's service and funeral. Fellow re-enacters remember him as a quiet kid who always wore a smile.

That smile is what Tara Doyle will keep with her.

"He was an absolute sweetheart," said Doyle, who attends church with the Aamot family. "He would just do anything for anybody. He had the best smile."

But there were more tears than smiles at Aamot's service, as soldiers carried in his flag-draped coffin and placed it before dozens of flower arrangements. Family and friends shed tears, hugged and held their children tight as a slideshow displayed pictures of Aamot from a baby to a soldier. During the ceremony, Maj. Gen. Susan Lawrence presented Aamot's parents with their son's medals: a Bronze Star for heroic combat and a Purple Heart.

"I can tell you, Aaron was a special soldier," she said. "Aamot was a hero, a key leader and soldier on the battlefield... Aaron loved being a soldier and he loved his family, who meant everything to him. Aaron makes me proud to wear this uniform."

Debbie Durbin remembers Aaron Aamot during a time when the military was far from his mind. Durbin, a Custer resident who went to church with the Aamot family, remembers him racing in the pinewood derby and attending cakewalks.

"He was very quiet, very polite, just the nicest kid in the world," she said. "He didn't have a lot in life, but he gave a lot. He was a good kid."

After the service the procession headed to Haynie Cemetery. Along the way, families stood outside their homes with flags and signs thanking Aamot and his family. Aamot is the first Whatcom County soldier killed while fighting in Afghanistan.

"We're just glad we got Aaron home, and he's back among his family," brother Matt Aamot said of the burial at Haynie, where family, including great-great-great-grandparents have also been laid to rest. "We were just walking around here three weeks ago talking about family."

Aamot was home on leave for two weeks in October. He and his friend Spc. Gary Gooch Jr. of Ocala, Fla., were killed Nov. 5 in a bomb blast just northwest of Kandahar shortly after returning to Afghanistan.

He was in the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment and was part of the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based in Fort Lewis. Aamot enlisted in 2006, shortly after graduating, and was sent on his first deployment to Afghanistan in July. The unit has taken multiple casualties, mostly from buried improvised explosives, and has reportedly lost nearly 30 soldiers.

"We really want to honor (the family) by keeping the others in his platoon in our prayers," Durbin said. "That would be (Aaron's) greatest wish. He would always be worried about someone else."

At the end of the funeral, a family friend released a single white dove into the icy air. As everyone looked up to the overcast sky to watch it fly, the family knew that Aamot was looking down.

Aaron Aamot was their son, their brother and their friend, and they knew they would see him again.

GIFTS FOR THE TROOPS

A holiday gift drive for soldiers in Aaron Aamot's regiment will run until Nov. 30. Unopened food, sports equipment, entertainment items and hygiene supplies will be collected at Peoples Bank locations in Whatcom County and Print & Copy Factory, 4055 Irongate Road. Items can also be dropped off at Whatcom County Fire District stations 41, 43, 46, 21, 22 and 25. For more information, e-mail HolidayGiftDriveforHeroes@gmail.com.