Their Story
Remembering Anthony R. C. Yost.
Master Sergeant Anthony Ray Charles Yost, United States Army, was 39 years old when he was killed during combat operations in Mosul, Iraq, on November 19, 2005. He served as a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha team sergeant with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Born in Oklahoma and raised in Flint, Michigan, he enlisted in the Army in 1987 as an armor crewman. His early assignments included tours in South Korea, Fort Lewis, Washington, and Fort Bliss, Texas. He graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course in 1993 and was assigned that year to 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, Colorado, as a Special Forces weapons sergeant.
After eight years with 10th Group he was assigned in 2001 to the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, where he served as a senior Special Forces weapons instructor. In March 2005 he joined 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, and he was serving as an Operational Detachment Alpha team sergeant at the time of his death.
In the early morning hours of November 19, 2005, he answered distress calls from Iraqi Police Service elements and soldiers of 2-1 Infantry, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team who were engaged with heavily armed insurgents in northeastern Mosul, and he led an assault force into an enemy-held structure.
For his actions that day he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. His decorations also include the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Special Forces Tab. He is survived by his wife, Joann, and his children.
Sources: DoD casualty release, 21 November 2005; ARSOF Fallen, U.S. Army Special Operations Command; Silver Star citation, Military Times Hall of Valor; Green Beret Foundation memorial; Steel Hearts legacy memorial copy.
