Shane Thirtyacre
Sgt IA Army Guard
1993-2008 Iraq
Shane Stephen Thirtyacre started his military career in April of 1993, at the age of 17, (with the written permission of his parents Steve Thirtyacre & Barb Thirtyacre) in the Illinois Army National Guard with the 123rd Field Artillery in Macomb, IL, where he served for 6 years before transferring to the Iowa Army National Guard with the 109th Medical Battalion, in Iowa City, IA where he was stationed for 9 years and reached the rank of Sergeant. After completing 15 years of service in the Army National Guard, he decided to join the Iowa Air National Guard with the 132nd Fighter Wing in Des Moines, IA where he remained until completing 20 years of military service for retirement. He has served several different roles in services, retention, personnel, training, security forces, lodging, driving instructor, maintenance, and moral to name a few.
He has had many notable accomplishments and experiences during his military career, such as flying over 5 different countries in CH-47 Chinook helicopter and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and becoming proficient with a number of different weapons, to include the M-67 Fragmentation grenade, M-18 Claymore mine, Beretta M-9 pistol, M-16 rifle, M-60 machine gun, M-249 (SAW) machine gun, M-203 grenade launcher, AT-4 anti-tank missile launcher, M-102 (105mm) Howitzer cannon, and the M-198 (155mm) Howitzer cannon.
He is a 3 time recipient of the “Top Gun” award for both M-16 rifle and M-60 machine gun and was accepted to the ranks of the Iowa “Governor’s 10” in 2000 with the Beretta M-9 pistol, where the top 10 pistol shooters in the state earned the right to wear the prestigious Governor’s 10 tab on their army class A uniforms.
During his 20 years of military service he has been activated for several natural and unnatural disasters to include five times for flood relief duty, twice for tornado relief duty, and was deployed to Mississippi to provide immediate humanitarian relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He was a first responder after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks for homeland defense where he remained on duty for several months. He was activated for war to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 for 14 months, where he was attached to the 101st Airborne Division and was one of the first soldiers to cross the border into Iraq on the very first day that “War” was officially declared against Iraq. His primary responsibility was as “Sergeant of the Guard” to provide combat security for the medical teams and was presented the Army Commendation Medal while in Iraq for outstanding duty performance during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was a highly decorated soldier receiving a total of 23 ribbons & medals during his military career.
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