 Shane R. Becker U.S. Army Staff Sergeant 1971-2007 Helena |
There were two sides to Shane R. Becker.
One Shane Becker was an Army sniper who tracked down insurgents in Iraq. The other was a loving father who doted on his daughter.
“He was devoted to the Army when he was with them,” said his stepfather, Bob Jorgensen, “and to his family when he was at home.”
Early Tuesday, Staff Sgt. Shane Becker, 35, was killed in a firefight south of Baghdad while he and his team searched for enemy mortars, Jorgensen said.
“He was a professional soldier,” said Jorgensen, 53, of Cheyenne, who commutes to his job with the Union Colony Fire Authority in Greeley.
“He was one of the few individuals that died doing what he loved.”
Becker was born on Oct. 12, 1971, in Denver, but grew up in Greeley, where he graduated from Greeley West High School in 1990.
Becker joined the Army in 1993 and was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas. “He always liked structure in his life, and the military gave him that,” Jorgensen said.
Becker married Crystal McGovran in 1994, and was discharged from the Army in 1997. He stayed in south Texas, working in an oil field as a gas driller.
But after Sept. 11, Becker soon found himself out of work and decided to re-enlist. He was again assigned to Fort Hood and was deployed to Iraq in 2004.
When he returned to the United States in 2005, he decided to transfer to the infantry, where he became a sniper.
Last March, Becker was transferred from Fort Hood to Fort Richardson, Alaska, where his family – wife Crystal and 7-year-old daughter Sierra – thrived. Becker was assigned to the First Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division.
“When he had the time off, he and Sierra would get haircuts together,” Jorgensen said. “When he wore camouflage, she wore camouflage. She was daddy’s little girl.”
Crystal Becker said her husband was a study in contrasts.
“Despite how big and strong he was, he was the sweetest husband and father,” she said. “He would always hold the door open for me, warm the car for me. He would tickle his daughter and go on bike rides with her.”
And he made sure that he came back to the U.S. for the birth of his second daughter, Cheyenna, on Feb. 7.
“He wore a pink shirt because he knew he would have another girl, even though everyone else thought we would have a boy,” said Crystal Becker.
Just two hours before Becker went out on his last mission, he contacted his wife and talked to her by Webcam.
“He had shaved his head, and we joked that he would be cuter than the baby.”
Services are pending, but his family said they supported what he was doing.
“He was just a great man,” said his wife. “He was doing what he believed in, and as sad as this is for us, it’s fortunate that we have that.”
In addition to his wife and his stepfather, Becker is survived by two daughters, Sierra and Cheyenna; his mother, Deborah Jorgensen, of Cheyenne; a sister, Brooke Jorgensen, of Cheyenne; a stepbrother, Kris Jorgensen, of Windsor; and a half brother, Matt Jorgensen, of Evans.
Story courtesy of The Rocky Mountain News.