Bonner Springs soldier dies in Iraq

'He was one of the good guys,' longtime friend says

He was a high-school valedictorian from Bonner Springs who was looking forward to coming back from war in Iraq to farm with his father.

But those dreams died Sunday during a tank battle for Najaf.

The Defense Department said Tuesday that 2nd Lt. James Michael Goins, 23, was killed Sunday by hostile fire. Goins was assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas.

“He was one of the good guys,” said Jill McSheehy, a longtime friend. “Anytime someone dies, people say all these wonderful things about them, but every good thing you hear about Michael you should believe completely. You just couldn’t say enough good things about him.”

Goins’ father, Jim Goins, said his son was killed when a gunman climbed on top of his tank and fired into its open hatch.

In his youth in Arkansas, Goins participated in Civil War re-enactments, serving on a cannon crew with his father.

“You could say he was born to be a soldier,” his father said.

Goins, who went to Iraq in January, attended high school in Bonner Springs and college at Kansas State University. He grew up in Green Forest, Ark., and, according to McSheehy, was planning to move back to Arkansas after leaving the military.

McSheehy, who said she had known Goins since elementary school, said Goins wanted to move back to Green Forest and help his father work a farm the family purchased a few years ago.

“He wanted to return to his roots,” she said.

Goins moved in 1995 from Arkansas to Bonner Springs, where his father was a minister. He won academic honors and was selected team captain in football and basketball. His family returned to Arkansas a few years ago, McSheehy said.

“That speaks as much to me about his personality as his athleticism,” Jim Goins said. “He was just admired and liked by everybody that knew him.”

Goins was valedictorian at Bonner Springs High School in 1999. He joined ROTC at Kansas State, graduating with honors in 2003. McSheehy said he earned a history degree.

“He loved history, he loved the military,” she said. “He was always participating in Civil War re-enactments.”

Second Lt. James Michael Goins, 23, was killed Sunday in Najaf, Iraq. Goins was assigned to the Army's 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas.

When Goins went to Iraq, McSheehy said she kept in contact with him through e-mail. The last e-mail she received from him was dated July 16.

McSheey dedicated a page on her Web site to Goins, asking visitors to the site to e-mail him in Iraq and to pray for him.

McSheehy’s mother, Judy Gray, was Goins’ fourth-grade teacher.

“He was very intelligent, a very good student,” Gray said. “He was very self-motivated; you couldn’t ask for a better student.”

Gray has taught fifth and sixth grades the past few years at a Christian school in Arkansas.

“My students wrote him letters, and he e-mailed Jill back that he wanted to come to the classroom and thank them when he got back home,” Gray said, adding that it has been difficult letting her students know Goins would never visit their classroom.

“He was a hero to them.”

Another childhood friend from Arkansas, Caleb Coats, said he had not come to grips with Goins’ death.

“The hard part is that I feel like I miss him when he’s off to war,” Coats said. “It still hasn’t sunk in that he’s not coming back. He was my hero before all of this. I wish he was still around for me to tell him that.”

Survivors include his wife, Paula; his parents, Jim and Tammy Goins; and two sisters, Mandy and Sarah.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.

By Mike BeltThe news of a Bonner Springs soldier’s death in Iraq struck close to home for many Lawrence-area Army reservists who are preparing for deployment to the Persian Gulf.”You feel the loss for their family, but you know there are hazards everywhere,” said Sgt. Michael Argumedo, Lawrence, a member of the 317th Quartermaster battalion, an Army Reserve unit based in Lawrence.Many of those at a send-off banquet Tuesday were just finding out about 2nd Lt. James Michael Goins, 23, Bonner Springs, who died Sunday in an attack in Najaf, Iraq. Goins was the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment.Although the 317th is a supply and logistical unit and not a combat unit, members agreed with Argumedo: Terrorists can strike anywhere.”They put their lives on the line every day when they put their uniforms on,” said Lt. Col. Larry Henderson, commander of the 317th. “They understand that there is that possibility.”Spc. John McCoy is sacrificing his senior year as a Kansas University football player for service in the 317th. But he said he knew others were making an even bigger sacrifice.”I feel for the family, and my heart goes out to every one of them,” McCoy said. “I know whatever I say is not going to make it any better. You can’t express how hard it is to see one of your fellow comrades go down.”