Army Staff Sgt. Eric B. Shaw

Died June 27, 2010 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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31, of Exeter, Maine; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; died June 27 in Ghakai Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with small-arms fire. Also killed was Spc. David W. Thomas.

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Left teaching career behind to serve in Army

The Associated Press

Eric Shaw was so passionate about history that he decided on a career as a history teacher.

He enrolled at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, graduating in 2003 with a degree in history and education.

Then he changed his mind.

Shaw, who grew up in Exeter, Maine, decided to follow his late father’s footsteps into the military. He enlisted in the Army.

Shaw was in Konar, Afghanistan, on his third overseas deployment June 27 when his unit from Fort Campbell, Ky., was attacked. He died in combat.

Shaw put his teaching career on hold and left his young family behind to go to war because he loved his country, said Rick Whitney, his high school history teacher.

“He’d be the type of person who put himself out there to help someone else if they needed him. No matter what the cost to him would be. It’s just the way he was,” Whitney said.

Shaw listed his wife, Audrey, as his hero on his MySpace page because “it takes a tough person to say goodbye to their mate for a long extended period of time and take care of two children,” he wrote before his third child was born. “All you army wives are [heroes] too.”

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Was serving on his 3rd combat tour

The Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. John Baldacci says a soldier who was raised in Maine has died in combat in Afghanistan.

Baldacci says Staff Sgt. Eric Shaw, 31, was killed June 27 by enemy gunfire in Afghanistan on his third combat tour. His wife, Audrey, was notified while visiting her parents in Maine. The Shaws’ three children live in Tennessee.

Baldacci placed a call to the family on Tuesday.

Shaw served with the 327th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, Fort Campbell, Ky. He was born in Massachusetts and raised in Exeter, Maine, by his father and grandmother, both of whom are deceased. His mother lives in Rhode Island.

Details of Shaw’s death have not been released.

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Laid to rest in state where he grew up

The Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Maine — A soldier from Maine who was killed in combat in Afghanistan has been laid to rest in a private service.

The July 8 funeral for Staff Sgt. Eric Shaw at Plummer Funeral Home in Augusta was followed by a graveside service at the Maine Veterans Cemetery.

Shaw, 31, was killed June 27 when his unit was attacked in Kunar, Afghanistan. He was serving with the 101st Airborne Division, out of Fort Campbell, Ky.