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Woman in Air Force killed in Afghanistan

By Henry Cuningham / Fayetteville Observer

Senior Airman Ashton L.M. Goodman, who loved animals and driving big, noisy trucks, was killed by a homemade bomb Tuesday in Afghanistan.

The 21-year-old airman from Indianapolis was the first woman from Pope Air Force Base to die in a combat zone. Goodman also was the first member of Pope's 43rd Airlift Wing killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Five members of Pope's special tactics squadrons, whose "battlefield airmen" often call in airstrikes from hostile areas, have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first woman from Fort Bragg to die in Iraq or Afghanistan was Capt. Kimberly Hampton, 27, of Easley, S.C. She was killed Jan. 2, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, when her two-seat Kiowa Warrior helicopter was hit by enemy ground fire and crashed. She was commander of Delta Troop of the 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.

Goodman drove trucks for the 43rd Logistics Readiness Squadron.

Airman 1st Class Vrajhi Brisby, 22, a truck driver in the same squadron, said she cried when she learned of her friend's death.

"I'm still in disbelief," Brisby said Wednesday afternoon. "I know it happened. I just can't believe it happened."

If Goodman had a choice of driving a sedan or a 40-foot tractor-trailer, she'd pick the tractor-trailer, Brisby said.

"She was a work-hard, play-hard girl," Brisby said. "She didn't care if she broke a nail, got greasy, got sweaty. If she messed up her hair, she didn't care. Even if you were sitting in the truck, she got dirty."

The blast near Bagram Airfield also claimed the life of Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II, 39, of Houston, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. He was assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon.

Goodman was on a reconstruction team in Afghanistan, filling an individual requirement for the job she did.

Pope's 43rd Airlift Wing has about 2,800 airmen, and about one-fifth are deployed at any time, said 2nd Lt. Chris Hoyler, a Pope spokesman.

Goodman had been assigned to Pope since October 2006. Brisby met her when she arrived at Pope, her first Air Force base after initial training, in February.

"We just started hanging out," Brisby said. They played Nintendo. Brisby played with Goodman's cats and her talking parrot.

"She was always happy and energetic," Brisby said. "I'd never seen her mad except when someone was messing with her cat."

Brisby called Goodman "Stoat" after she heard about the short-tailed weasel and looked it up on the Internet.

"She knew little animal facts and was always interested in learning more," Brisby said.

Goodman loved the military, so she might have stayed in or maybe worked with animals in the civilian world, Brisby said.

Brisby talked to her friend from Afghanistan.

"She wanted to deploy," she said. "She said she was working hard and having fun. That was what she wanted to do. She said she liked it over there. She was always looking for the next challenge. She wanted to stay."