Soldier honored for faith, service

Staff Sgt. Wyatt A. Goldsmith was remembered Tuesday as a man of faith, quality and selfless service to others.

If you were injured, “The guy you wanted to look up and see standing over you was Wyatt,” Army Capt. Phil Kornachuk said at funeral services for Goldsmith at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Colville.

Goldsmith, a decorated combat medic with the Army’s Special Forces, died July 15 while fighting in the Helmand province in Afghanistan.

At the Maple Street church, hundreds gathered in support of the 28-year-old soldier and former ski patroller at 49 Degrees North. Goldsmith is the son of Lorie and John Goldsmith of Colville.

“Wyatt clearly loved others,” said the Rev. Steve Werner, who officiated Tuesday’s services. Held in the same church where Goldsmith attended mass growing up, services spilled out of the church on to the lawn, as dozens sat in white plastic chairs and listened over a public address system.

Members of the Patriot Guard lined the church entrance with American flags, which also lined the streets of Colville from Main Street up Third Street to the church. Gov. Chris Gregoire directed flags at Washington state buildings be lowered to half-staff.

“Wyatt was a part of many families,” Werner said.

Those who knew him came to depend on his easygoing manner and big heart. He shared his love of gourmet coffee, fine cigars and a music collection that “defied any sort of logic,” Kornachuk said.

And he was tireless in his quest to help others.

“He didn’t wait to be told – when he saw a problem he fixed it,” Kornachuk said.

Born in Redmond, Wash., Goldsmith moved with his family to Colville when he was in the sixth grade. He graduated from Colville High School in 2001, and in 2004 joined the Army as a Special Forces recruit.

Before his military service, Goldsmith worked first as a parking lot attendant, lift operator, and later as a ski patroller at 49 Degrees North, said Gary Deaver, Ski Patrol director.

Deaver remembered a gifted young Goldsmith – who began working on the mountain when he was 16 – as one who “wandered in his mind a lot.”

Goldsmith often could be found reading three books at a time: something like a Stephen King novel, something philosophical like Sophocles, and the Bible, Werner said.

He grew up on the mountain as he became an integral part of the Ski Patrol team, Deaver said. It was on the mountain that he became interested in work as a first-responder.

Goldsmith graduated from a Special Forces qualification course in 2008 and was assigned as a medical sergeant to the Company A, 3rd Battallion, Special Forces Group (Airborne), stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Goldsmith, who earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, completed two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before being deployed this year to the volatile Helmand province.

During his second tour, Goldsmith suffered a gunshot wound to his foot during a late-night firefight. He tended to six injured Afghanis before being forced to seek medical help for his own injury, Kornachuk said, a testament to his selfless nature.

Nothing was more important to Goldsmith “than fighting alongside his buddies and saving people’s lives,” Staff Sgt. Robert Cogan said. “He died doing both.”

Goldsmith is survived by his parents; his sister Nicole Goldsmith, of Seattle; and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins.