Baron Shanaberger, in the Army for 14 years, was ambushed and killed while investigating a suspicious vehicle.
By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published March 30, 2004
After enlisting in the Army as a young man, Baron Shanaberger didn't take long to decide he would be a career soldier.
He did tours in Kuwait during Desert Storm, and he served in Bosnia, Korea and Panama in his 14 years in the Army.
After Christmas, Shanaberger, a staff sergeant, went to Iraq, where he was in charge of a military police detail.
On Wednesday, as he investigated a suspicious vehicle, a group of insurgents using small arms and homemade explosives ambushed and killed him, the Army said.
Shanaberger, who spent his teenage years in Zephyrhills, was 33. He leaves behind a wife and five children.
Eddie Flicker, Shanaberger's uncle, said his nephew loved military life.
"He was definitely a career soldier," said Flicker, of Dade City. "That's what he liked to do, and that's what he wanted to do."
Born in Daytona Beach, Shanaberger moved to Zephyrhills and attended Zephyrhills High School, where he was in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.
His former instructor, retired Sgt. Maj. John J. McMaines, remembered Shanaberger as a well-behaved kid with a lot of energy.
"He was pumped up, always raring to go," McMaines said. "You had to slow him down."
Shanaberger was assigned to the Army's 21st Military Police Company, stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. The Army planned a memorial service for him today at the post.
Shanaberger, whose full name is Wentz Jerome Henry Shanaberger III, will be buried Thursday at Townsend House Cemetery, off Blanton Road near the Pasco-Hernando county line. The family chose that location, Flicker said, because Shanaberger wanted to be buried near his grandmother, Audrey Flicker. He was her first grandson.
Shanaberger lived near Fort Bragg with his wife, Corey, and children. He liked working with wood, Flicker said, and had built a playhouse for the kids, ages 3 through 16.
Flicker said Shanaberger would be missed by everyone who knew him: "He had a very charismatic personality. He was just somebody that you just liked automatically."
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
