For Kim Allison, the pain of loss did not end Sunday when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel presided over a ceremony in Kabul officially closing out the 13-year-long war in Afghanistan.
On March 11, 2013, Allison’s youngest son, Army Spc. Zachary Shannon, died in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
Shannon, a 2010 graduate of Dunedin High School, was just 21.
There was no way of knowing it at the time, but Shannon would be the last service member who grew up in the Tampa area to die in Operation Enduring Freedom, as the war was officially called,
Since Oct. 7, 2001, when bombs and missiles began falling on insurgent positions in Afghanistan, 150 service members who listed Florida as their home of choice died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Aside from Shannon, there were 34 men and one woman who listed Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee or Hernando counties as their addresses, according to an Associated Press database.
Allison, 53, says she didn’t pay attention to the Kabul ceremony, didn’t really realize the war was over and didn’t know that her son was the last lifelong Floridian to die.
All she knew was that the grief is enduring — for her son, for all the others who made the ultimate sacrifice and their families and for all those who survived but are still suffering the aftermath of combat.
“I will be glad when the troops come home,” she says, “so that nobody else will go through what we did.”
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As the youngest child in a military family, Zachary Shannon always knew what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“My husband was in the Army,” says Kim Allison. “My three older sons are military. Zack was the baby of the family and always wanted to serve his country.”
Each Halloween, Shannon would dress up in his brothers’ old uniforms.
“He would have real camo face paint and stuff like that,” she says. “His favorite shows were ‘Band of Brothers,’ ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and anything on the Discovery Channel and History channel about war. He was always watching war.
While Shannon was a student at Dunedin High School, there was a sibling rivalry for his military affection, says Kim Allison.
One older brother, Robert Mirrione, was in the Navy. Another older brother, Steven Shannon, was in the Army National Guard.
Both brothers were recruiters.
“Both were at him,” Kim Allison says, “trying to convince Zack. One wanted him to go into the Navy, the other one wanted him to go into the Army.”
In the end, neither sibling had much sway.
“Zack found out the Navy didn’t have Black Hawks,” says Allison. “So he really wanted to go into the Army, which did.”
Right after graduation, Zack Shannon enlisted in the Army and became a helicopter mechanic. He did one tour in Korea and on Dec. 14, 2012, he was sent to Afghanistan, where he was stationed at Kandahar Air Field.
It was his first tour in a combat zone.
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Kim Allison says that in the back of her mind, she always knew that when her son left for Afghanistan, she would never see him again.
“I always had a feeling he wasn’t coming home. Call it mother’s intuition.”
When another son was in Kuwait, Allison says she made plans for what they would do when he came home. But not with Shannon.
“With Zack, I was cautiously optimistic,” she says. “In fact, deep down inside, I didn’t make any plans. I didn’t even mark the calendar when he would get home.”
On March 11, 2013, Zack Shannon volunteered for a training mission. The helicopter flew through bad weather and crashed, killing all five aboard.
“I was working the night shift when my husband called and told me to come right home,” she says.
When she saw the men in uniforms through the family’s large picture windows, she knew.
“I was numb,” she says. “But not ‘oh-my-God-I-can’t-believe-it.’ Part of me was saying that I’ve been waiting for this.”
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Shannon’s relatives aren’t the only ones deeply affected by his death.
“One of Zack’s best friends in the Army said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll bring Zack home safe,’” says Allison. “Obviously that didn’t happen. We never held it against him, because it was beyond his control, but he really took it to heart.”
The soldier, says Allison, has struggled ever since.
“He apologized to me,” says Allison. “He’s really had a lot of trouble when he got home. He’s very jumpy. Almost paranoid. He seems very guilt-ridden.”
For many of Shannon’s friends, Afghanistan will be a dark memory they can never escape.
“I still keep in touch with his friends,” she says. “Some came back intact, some have post traumatic stress disorder. It’s pretty heartbreaking.”
Shannon’s father, Chip Allison, 48, agrees.
“The worst part I think is seeing all these kids come back with post traumatic stress,” he says. “A friend of mine who was in the Army with me did nine different tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. You can definitely see a change in his personality with all the stuff he has seen.”
As for their family, the Allisons say they are coping the best they can.
“Zack was the glue that kept all his brothers together,” she says. “Since he died, things have never really gone back to normal.”
Aside from working as a hospice nurse, Kim Allison devotes a lot of time to the Zachary Shannon Topgun Award, a college scholarship fund set up for the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Dunedin High School. So far, two JROTC members have received $1,000 scholarships and Allison says she hopes to continue the program for many years.
Her other sons had been deeply involved, as well, but find participating to be increasingly difficult, she says.
For Chip Allison, having a son die on the battlefield “is a double-edged sword.”
“I am really proud when people ask me about it,” he says. “At the same time, I am sad.”
Chip Allison says knowing that his son was pursuing a dream has helped him cope.
“He volunteered for everything he did and was killed doing something he really wanted to do,” Chip Allison says. “He wasn’t killed by drugs. He wasn’t killed by a drunk driver or something stupid like happens to a lot of kids these days.”
Having VFW Post 2550 named for Shannon, as well as a street and a ballfield have also helped, Chip Allison says.
The Allisons say a new family tradition has also helped. The family placed a Christmas tree at Dunedin Cemetery, where Shannon wanted to be buried.
“We invited friends to put ornaments on the tree,” says Kim Allison.
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“I want to express my deep gratitude to all U.S. personnel, both military and civilian, who have served in Afghanistan since 2001, many on multiple deployments,” Hagel said during his speech Sunday officially ending Operation Enduring Freedom.
“I also thank the thousands more who were a part of the mission at home and around the world. In fighting America’s longest war, our people and their families have borne a heavy burden, and some paid the ultimate price.”
Though the administration has declared the war over, there will still be nearly 11,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan in 2015, for a follow-on mission called Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. It will largely mean training and advising the Afghan forces as they continue to battle insurgents. But there is also a counterterrorism component, in which U.S. forces will take part in commando raids. And no place in that country is truly safe.
Zachary Shannon may be the last lifelong Floridian to have died in Operation Enduring Freedom, but his parents realize that Afghanistan remains a dangerous place and that as long as there are U.S. troops there, it is likely other families will experience the same pain they know all too well.
“It rips your heart out every time you see a family lose a loved one,” Kim Allison said. “You want to support the president and stand behind the country, but deep down you just want the war to be over so that you don’t have to see any family go through what we went through.”
PHOTO: Kim Allison poses next to a picture of her son Zachary Shannon (top right) who was killed in Afghanistan along with his helicopter flight crew. A memorial for the flight crew is at top left on the back wall. JAY CONNER/STAFF