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Flags to Fly at Half-Staff to Honor Montana Soldier

By Beacon Staff

HELENA – Gov. Brian Schweitzer has ordered that flags be flown at half-staff Wednesday to honor a soldier with Montana ties who was killed in Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Shane Barnard of De Smet, S.D., was killed May 19 when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was working to defuse another such device in Zabul Province.

Lois Jones of Box Elder says her son attended grade school in Havre and high school in Great Falls before graduating in Italy. Jones says they moved with her husband, Robert Jones, who was in the military.

The 38-year-old Barnard was originally trained as a combat medic, but was later assigned as an explosive ordnance disposal specialist to the 3rd Ordnance Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

He is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and three children, ages 14, 9 and 8.