Service and sacrifice

POST FALLS — The Green Beret son of John and Lorie Goldsmith died saving the lives of three other people.

"They were in a firefight," Lorie said Monday morning during a Memorial Day ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery, where the Goldsmiths, of Post Falls, were the honored guests in recognition of their son's sacrifice.

Sgt. 1st Class Wyatt A. Goldsmith entered the U.S. Army in June 2004 as a Special Forces recruit.

In October 2004, after basic training and completion of advanced individual training and the basic airborne course at Fort Benning, Ga., Wyatt was assigned to the 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, N.C. He attended Special Forces Assessment and Selection in 2005 and was selected to continue his training as a medical sergeant in the Special Forces Qualification Course.

Wyatt died July 15, 2011, in Afghanistan. He was saving the life of an Afghan commando he served with, his mom said, after saving the lives of two others.

"And the last one is still alive,” John said. "The doctor said all three that he saved that day are still alive."

At age 28, Wyatt Goldsmith died a hero.

“We’re of course very proud of him, all of the relatives of those who have died are equally as proud of theirs,” Lorie said. "For us, it has been 12 years now. The memories that we have of him are still there. Of course, it’s not as hard as it was right at first, but we’re very honored that we can even come to these kinds of ceremonies and still have people remember. It’s also a day we hear from a lot of his friends, a lot of our old friends. It goes on."

The well-attended Memorial Day ceremony presented by Post Falls American Legion Post 143 and the city of Post Falls included words from Post 143 Commander Jim Culpepper and a ringing of the bell as names were spoken honoring Post Falls veterans who died in the past year.

"I got quite a few friends that are buried in this cemetery, a lot of them served the same time I did during the Vietnam War, Navy, Army, Marine veterans, and the World War II guys I got close to when I got home," said Coleman Rozsnyai, who was a gun fire control radar technician and served as a petty officer in the Navy. He enlisted in 1967 and was honorably discharged in January 1973.

Rozsnyai is a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America. He wore an original in-country U.S. Marines dress uniform from the Vietnam War to the ceremony.

"I'm glad to see the people come out," he said. "The youth groups that came out over the weekend to set (637) flags, that really touched my heart, to see an increase of patriotism and the youth getting involved."