Family remembers Maine native killed in Iraq

LEWISTON – A Maine native who was killed in Iraq last week saved three other soldiers who were riding with him when a roadside bomb detonated near their Humvee, family members said.

Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Dostie was killed Dec. 30 during patrol operations in Baghdad.

Dostie, 32, did “everything he could to protect his people,” his wife, Stephanie Dostie, said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Fort Campbell, Ky., where Shawn Dostie was assigned to a combat team of the 101st Airborne Division.

“When he went to Iraq, all he wanted was to make sure his platoon made it back,” Stephanie Dostie told the Sun Journal of Lewiston. “He took the blast.”

Shawn Dostie grew up in the Lewiston area, living in Lewiston and Turner until he was 14.

He moved with his parents, Robert and Delaine Fugere, to Granite City, Ill., in 1986 and moved back to Lewiston for his senior year in high school. He joined the Army after graduating in 1991.

“From the time he was a young boy, he always had a job and took pride in whatever he did,” Dostie’s parents said in a statement. “He was a very sensitive little boy and that carried through to his adult life.”

Shawn and Stephanie Dostie had an 8-year-old boy, Cameron, and a 5-year-old girl, Bayleigh.

“When he wasn’t working, he loved playing soccer with the children or taking family trips,” Stephanie Dostie said. “We always knew there was little time for family, so he made the most of it.”

Dostie was assigned to D Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division.

After the war began, he became a drill instructor, preparing soldiers for life in the Army. He left for Iraq on Sept. 27, leading a platoon of 12 men and women.

Army officials say soldiers plan to hold a memorial service for Shawn Dostie in Iraq. He will also be remembered at Fort Campbell, where a monthly Eagle Remembrance Ceremony recalls each of the 101st Airborne Division’s losses in the Middle East.

Another service will be held in Lewiston in about two weeks, Stephanie Dostie said. She and the children plan to move to Lewiston to be close to Shawn’s parents.