Flags Lowered For Fort Carson Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Gov. John Hickenlooper announced flags around the state to be flown at half-mast to honor the death in Afghanistan of a Fort-Carson based soldier.

Sgt. 1st Class Mihail Golin, 34, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, died Jan. 1 in, Afghanistan after a firefight with Afghan enemy forces, a statement from the Pentagon said. Golin was on a dismounted patrol in Nangarhar, a largely ISIS-controlled province in eastern Afghanistan. Golin was a Green Beret, assigned to the 2nd Battalion (airborne), 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson. Golin was the first US military casualty of 2018.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our own," said John Nicholson, commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Four other soldiers were wounded in the firefight Jan. 1.

According to a U.S. Army obituary:

Golin was an 18B Special Forces Weapons Sergeant assigned to 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). He was born in Riga, Latvia, on August 20, 1983, and moved to the United States in October 2004 and enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 5, 2005. After completing basic training and advanced individual training, Golin was assigned as an 11B Infantryman with the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Following his assignment in Alaska, Golin volunteered for Special Forces training and graduated from the Army’s Special Forces Qualification Course in November 2014. He was then assigned to 10th SFG (A) as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant.

He was remembered by fellow Green Berets on a military website: "[Golin's] is Latvian accent, bravery and get-er-done attitude was an exemplary soldier and good friend as a man," remembered Sgt. Adam Cichelli.

Father David Golin, 55, of the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, told the New York Post he was heartbroken to lose his only son.

"He was only 34 years (old). He was a very brave guy. A career in the military was his destiny," Golin told the Post. The senior Golin said his son joined the U.S. Army at age 21, the year after the family arrived as immigrants from Latvia.

"He said, 'I want to serve the Army.' He signed up right after he came to America. He wanted to be in the airborne forces," Golin told the Post. "I will always remember him as a good man, proudly, and what he did for this country. He said, 'This country has taken us.' He wanted to serve for this country."

But the soldier's father had questions about the purpose of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"I don't understand. This Afghanistan, some small country, what are they doing over there?" he asked. "Why are we losing our kids over there? ... What for? That's the main question."

See the New York Post's Coverage here.

Image via U.S. Army