After playing three years of varsity football at Kennesaw Mountain High School, Omar Forde had offers to play at the college level when he graduated in 2004.
But he had bigger plans that included serving his country and starting a family with his high school sweetheart. He passed on football and enlisted in the military. This week, the soldier from Cobb County was one of six killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, the U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday.
Sgt. 1st Class Forde, 28, of Marietta, died Tuesday from injuries sustained while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, the department said. At the time of his death, Forde was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, out of Fort Riley, Kan.
“You see it on the news all the time,” Heather Burk, a high school classmate, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But for it to hit this close to home, it was gut-wrenching. Just gut-wrenching.”
Forde grew up in Cobb County, where he attended Dowell Elementary School, Pine Mountain Middle School and then Kennesaw Mountain, his best friend of more than 20 years, Jon Barker, said Thursday night. Barker last saw his friend in July before Forde was deployed for the third time, Barker said.
“I worried about him, but every deployment got easier,” Barker said. “It’s always in the back of your mind. It just doesn’t seem real.”
In eight years of military service, Forde had been promoted seven times and was dedicated to his military career, Barker said. But outside of work, Forde had a fun personality that drew people to him. And he was a family man, dedicated to his wife, Megan, and two boys, ages 5 and 17 months, his friends said.
Forde’s former coach at Kennesaw Mountain, Scott Jones, is now the football coach at North Paulding High School. He called Forde one of his “pride and joys” in his 28 years of coaching and teaching.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all that he was serving his country because he was selfless and very committed to what he did,” Jones said Thursday night.
Forde’s family and friends are now preparing for his funeral. Those arrangements have not yet been finalized, but his classmates hope to be able to honor Forde’s sacrifice.
“He is our class hero,” Burk said.
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