Remembering Ashton: Pope Army Airfield names building after airman killed in Afghanistan

POPE ARMY AIRFIELD — About a week after what would have been Senior Airman Ashton Lynn Marie Goodman’s 37th birthday and 15 years after her death, her name will now be permanently known at Fort Liberty and Pope Army Airfield.

Friends, family and airmen gathered for a ceremony Friday to dedicate the Senior Airman Ashton L.M. Goodman Airman’s Center, which is off Rock Merritt Avenue, between Inceptor Road and Boxcar Street.

Goodman was a few weeks shy of her 22nd birthday when she died the day after Memorial Day in 2009, from injuries suffered during a roadside bombing near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

She was assigned to the 43rd Logistics Readiness Squadron and was part of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team, which helped Afghan communities with road and school projects and expansion of medical services and electrical power.

She was the first female casualty from Pope Air Force Base and the 43rd Airlift Wing in Afghanistan.

Col. Allen Morris Jr, commander of the 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group at Pope Army Airfield, didn’t know Goodman but heard about her in 2018 from his former commander, retired Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly.

Goodman was Kelly’s driver when they were deployed to Afghanistan.

Morris said Kelly often spoke about Goodman.

“She made a big impact on him,” Morris said during the ceremony.

Morris said that when he took command of the 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group last year, and made it a mission to start “doing some homework and setting things right,” a master sergeant told him that the airman center was supposed to be named after an airman killed in Afghanistan.

The renaming got lost in the shuffle with the base realignment and closure of Pope Air Force Base and its assets transferring to the Army.

Morris said that after the master sergeant told him Goodman’s name, he reached out to Kelly to confirm she was the same airman he frequently spoke about.

Once receiving the confirmation, other airmen tracked down Goodman’s family, he said.

“A lot of things had to happen correctly in good time and timing to make this happen,” Morris said. “It should have happened 14 years ago.”

Family reacts

Goodman’s family was present at Friday’s ceremony, with her father retired Master Sgt. Mark Goodman helping reveal a portrait and plaque that will be displayed at the Ashton L.M. Goodman Airman’s Center.

Goodman's sister Brianna Goodman spoke on behalf of the family.

Through tears, Brianna Goodman shared a quote with the crowd that states, “Legacy is not what I did for myself but it’s what I did for the next generation."

Following the ceremony, she and other family members said Ashton Goodman was the eldest sibling.

“To know that her impact goes further than just the people that she knew directly is really a beautiful thing,” Brianna Goodman said.

Goodman’s biography states that she enlisted in the military after graduating from high school in 2006 and that she was a third-generation woman in her family to serve in the Air Force.

“Ashton was doing what she loved, and her ability to use her service to help people was really, I think, one of the most important things about her time in the military,” her brother Levi Goodman said. “I feel like even though it didn’t necessarily go so well, I feel like she wouldn’t have done it different.”

Retired general remembers airman's impact

Kelly, who was at Friday’s ceremony, said that he only knew Goodmon for a couple of months, but he quickly noticed senior noncommissioned officers going to her for advice.

“They looked to her for relevance, credibility and experience,” he said.

Goodman, Kelly said, was already a combat-experienced driver when she arrived in Afghanistan, having served a tour in Iraq before.

He recalled one moment when he was en route to meet with provincial leaders and villagers to discuss a wind farm and new antenna that would relay radio signals from Kabul to the Panjshir Valley.

Goodman recommended that everyone in the vehicle remove their body armor before arriving at the location, Kelly said.

“Our interpreter Rose agreed with her that arriving at someone’s home in body armor would be considered insulting to local leaders providing our security,” he said. “As usual, she was right.”

Kelly said that once they arrived to the destination, he noticed Goodman “already had one of her multicolored scarves,” and was with the group’s interpreter speaking to a group of young girls.

Kelly said that once they arrived at the destination, he noticed Goodman “already had one of her multicolored scarves” and was with the group’s interpreter speaking to a group of young girls.

“That singular optic of empowered, capable and responsible free American military woman was forever seared (in my mind),” he said.

Kelly said that once he learned about Goodman’s death, he tried to keep her memory alive because she taught him “about true leadership and what it’s supposed to look like.”

He encouraged Friday's crowd to read Melissa Pritchard's article on Oprah.com called "Finding Ashton."

Pritchard was an embedded freelance journalist who got to know Goodman when they were in Afghanistan.

According to Goodman's biography, she loved animals and hoped to be a veterinarian or biologist, but was also "an aspiring writer with an adventurous spirit and desire to see the world."

Though Pritchard was unable to attend Friday's ceremony, a note she wrote was shared that said when she read Goodman's stories they reflected her personality, which was tender, heroic, wise, honest and funny.

"She became a spokesperson for giving Afghanistan women rights using what she called the power of words, not weapons," Pritchard said.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Pope Army Airfield names building after Senior Airman Ashton Goodman