Yellow Pages
SEDRO-WOOLLEY — When Army Spc. Aaron S. Aamot was a teenager, he was profoundly affected by the effects of Sept. 11, 2001. He told family members he would join the military, his grandmother said.
“He went with his eyes wide open determined to make the world a better place, and he did,” said his maternal grandmother, Donna Hinds.
Aamot, 23, of Custer was killed last Thursday, when the Stryker vehicle he was driving rolled over a buried explosive in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. Aamot was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis.
Aamot is the third person with connections to Skagit or Island counties who has been killed in the war in Afghanistan. His mother, Julie Aamot, grew up in Sedro-Woolley and his maternal grandparents, Bill and Donna Hinds, live in the Hickson area north of Sedro-Woolley.
Another Fort Lewis soldier, Spc. Gary L. Gooch Jr., 22, of Ocala, Fla., was killed and two others were wounded in the same explosion.
“He was with his friend Gary, the other one who was one killed,” Hinds said. “Aaron was driving.”
Born in Bellingham the fifth of eight children, Aamot was schooled at home until he entered Ferndale High School, where the graduated.
Aamot grew up on the family’s farm in Custer. He gardened and raised chickens, pigs and rabbits. He was involved in 4-H and FFA, and entered his animals at the local fairs. Hinds said that Aamot amazed her when he used to tell her about his science projects and other school assignments.
Aamot loved video games, and while he was at Fort Lewis, he would play via an Internet connection against a brother who lives in Arlington, his grandmother said. He last saw family members in mid-October when he was on leave.
“We’re thankful we had Aaron 23 years,” his grandmother said. “He was just a wonderful kid. Sometimes it seemed to me he was older than he was.”
Aamot enlisted in the Army in July 2006, according to the Fort Lewis Public Affairs Office. In December 2006, he was assigned to 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Lewis as a Stryker vehicle driver. His unit was deployed in July to Afghanistan. It was Aamot’s first deployment.
“When he first got there, it was pretty calm,” Hinds said.
That changed as summer became fall. Attacks grew deadlier for civilians and military personnel alike as the country approached its elections.
This year has been the deadliest of the eight-year war, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, a nonprofit group devoted to tracking the casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A total of 467, including 287 Americans, have been killed this year as of Tuesday. By comparison, 295 were killed in 2008, including 155 Americans.
Aamot had planned to go into law enforcement or a related field, his grandmother said.
“He was one of those ones who set out to change the world,” Hinds said.
