Sawyer, Ronald Wayne
Male
Verified SFC Ronald Wayne Sawyer, 38, of Trenton, Missouri, was a U.S. Army soldier serving with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Their Story
Sergeant First Class Ronald Wayne Sawyer was killed in action on August 25, 2009, in the Shah Wali Kot District of Afghanistan's Kandahar province. He was 38 years old. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Sawyer died of wounds sustained from a roadside bomb while on a dismounted patrol. The attack occurred during a period of intense fighting in southern Afghanistan, a region that saw a significant increase in U.S. troop deployments that year.
Sawyer was a senior non-commissioned officer assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, part of the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Lewis, Washington. His unit was deployed as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan that began in October 2001.
The 5th Stryker Brigade arrived in Afghanistan in the summer of 2009 and was immediately engaged in difficult counterinsurgency operations. The Shah Wali Kot District, where Sawyer died, was a known insurgent stronghold. His death was one of several suffered by the brigade during a deployment marked by frequent engagements with Taliban forces and the pervasive threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Sawyer was from Trenton, Missouri. Public records and casualty lists indicate he had served multiple overseas deployments, including to Afghanistan, the Philippines, and the Horn of Africa, over the course of his military career. His death was reported by several major news outlets at the time as part of the regular casualty reporting from the conflict zone.
His passing is recorded among the more than 1,000 U.S. service members who died in Afghanistan in 2009, which was the deadliest year for American forces in the war up to that point. The conflict, known as Operation Enduring Freedom, formally concluded for U.S. combat operations in December 2014.
Explore Further
Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led combat mission in Afghanistan, began in 2001 and concluded in December 2014. See the full roster of those killed in this conflict.
Among those documented in the same conflict: Andrews, Evander Earl, Edmunds, Jonn Joseph, Stonesifer, Kristofor Tif, Davis, Bryant Leroy.
