He was currently assigned to the 21st Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Army Airfield, NC. He was a four-time Bronze Star recipient, once with the Valor device, and had deployed four times to sensitive locations around the world in his nearly seven years of service. He is survived by his parents of Pensacola, FL.
A Memorial Service will be held on Monday, September 14 at 0900 at the Freedom Hangar at Hurlburt Field.
Visitation will be held on Tuesday, September 15, from 1400 to 1700 at the Naval Aviation Memorial Chapel located at 131 Moffett Rd, Bldg. 1982; Pensacola, FL 32508. Funeral service will be held on Wednesday, September 16 at 1100 at the same address. Interment will follow the service at the Barrancas National Cemetery at 1400. A military Honor Guard has been requested. It has not been decided by the family at this time what the desires are in lieu of flowers.
Forrest graduated from Niceville, FL high school. He graduated from the Combat Control School in Class 09-005, and Advanced Skills Training Class 35. He was CCA Life Member 1345.
May he Rest in Peace, CT
HURLBURT FIELD — For the second time in a month, the Special Tactics community is mourning the loss of two of its airmen following an attack in Afghanistan on Aug. 25.
Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, who were deployed in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, were at a vehicle checkpoint near Camp Antonik when two individuals wearing Afghan National Defense and Security Forces uniforms opened fire on them. NATO service members returned fire and killed the shooters.
Roland and Sibley passed away from their wounds the following day.
“The losses of Matt and Forrest are a terrible blow to everyone who knew them,” said Col. Wolfe Davidson, 24th Special Operations Wing commander. “These two Combat Controllers were incredible warriors who not only volunteered to join our nation’s Special Operations Forces, but earned their way to the tip of the spear in defense of our nation.”
The deaths of Roland and Sibley occurred just a little more than three weeks after Tech. Sgt. Timothy Officer and Tech. Sgt. Marty Betteyloun, both members of the 24th Special Operations Wing, were killed in a free fall training accident at Eglin Air Force Base on Aug. 3.
Roland was a special tactics officer at the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron at Hurlburt. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2010. Upon completing the STO training program in 2012, he was a team leader who supervised real-world combat preparedness training of a 35-member team.
He deployed three times in his five years of service to multiple locations globally. He is survived by his parents.
Phil Roberts of Lexington, Kentucky, knew Roland during his days as an Eagle Scout in high school.
“Matt was a true leader even in high school,” Roberts wrote in an email to the Daily News.
“He was a fun-loving, boisterous, happy kid, and there was never any doubt he would be a fine military officer. I think he probably wore camo diapers as an infant!”
Sibley was a Combat Controller at the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, Pope Army Airfield, N.C. He was a four-time Bronze Star medal recipient, once with the valor device, and he deployed four times to sensitive locations around the world in his nearly seven years of service. He is survived by his parents.
“I went to school with Forrest,” John Wayne McDonald of Alabama commented on the Daily News website. “He was a great guy. He was never mean to anyone.”
Due to their extensive special operations training, both were military-qualified static line jumpers, free fall jumpers, combat scuba divers and qualified in joint terminal attack control.
“The risks that these men and their teammates endured in combat and in training are all too well known to the Special Tactics community, but it does not make this great loss any easier to bear,” Davidson said. “We will honor Matt and Forrest for the legacy they left behind, embrace their families as our own, and thank them eternally for their ultimate sacrifice for American freedom.”
Lexington airman killed in 'insider' Afghanistan attack was in Special Operations
A former teacher and coach of Air Force Capt. Matthew D. Roland, one of two airmen killed Wednesday in Afghanistan, remember the Eagle Scout as "a born leader" who "certainly stuck out" for his motivation and dedication.
"He was such a young guy who had so much to give to the world," said Tim Wiesenhahn, cross-country coach at Lexington Catholic High School. "It's tragic."
Roland, 27, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, of Pensacola, Fla., were shot and killed in their vehicle near Camp Antonlik in Helmand province, the Air Force release confirmed in a news release.
Roland was a 2006 graduate of Lexington Catholic and a 2010 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Carrie Roberts, a teacher at Lexington Catholic, said Thursday that she taught advanced-placement physics to Roland and wrote a letter of recommendation in support of his effort to get into the Air Force Academy.
"He was a really smart kid," Roberts said. "Very trustworthy, respectful, dedicated, motivated. He was a quiet kid, and sometimes those are the hard ones to remember. But he certainly stuck out."
Roberts, 42, has taught at Lexington Catholic for 15 years. She said the news of Roland's death "was numbing."
"We were in the teachers' lounge, and I just had to stand there a while as it sunk in," she said. "It's difficult to think that somebody who went to an academy, which you usually think of as safe, and one of your students, much younger than me, gave his life for his country. I believe he was a hero. Anybody who was willing to give up their life for my freedom deserves all of our thoughts and our prayers."
Wiesenhahn, 48, the cross-country coach at Lexington Catholic, said Roland was "a born leader."
"He really wanted to be successful," Wiesenhahn said. "I like to say he was driven to succeed. You just kinda knew he was going to be a leader. ... The best runners really work at it, and Matt wanted to be successful, and he put in the work."
Wiesenhahn said Roland "followed directions really well. I mean, I could give them stuff to do, him and Clint Roberts, who I think was the senior captain that year, and I could trust them to follow directions and lead the team."
Survivors include his parents, retired Air Force Col. Mark Roland and Barbara Roland. Roland's sister, Erica, is a public defender in Lexington.
Roland was a special tactics officer at the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron in Afghanistan. After completing the rigorous special tactics training program in 2012, he was a team leader who supervised real-world combat preparedness training for a 35-member team. He deployed three times in his five years of service to multiple locations globally.
"The losses of Matt and Forrest are a terrible blow to everyone who knew them," said Col. Wolfe Davidson, 24th Special Operations Wing commander. "These two Combat Controllers were incredible warriors who not only volunteered to join our nation's Special Operations Forces, but earned their way to the tip of the spear in defense of our nation."
A man wearing an Afghan security force uniform opened fire Wednesday inside a base in southern Afghanistan, killing the two U.S. airmen in what appeared to be the latest "insider attack" to target foreign troops or contractors in the country.
NATO said two men in Afghan uniforms were shot in return fire and were wounded, correcting an earlier NATO statement that had said two gunmen attacked the Americans before being shot dead.
NATO said the gunman opened fire on a vehicle carrying international troops inside the base in Helmand province. Afghan authorities suspect that the shooting occurred during an altercation.
NATO did not identify the base where the attack took place.
Taliban insurgents have been known to wear Afghan police or military uniforms to stage attacks on international troops. Others have opened fire apparently on their own accord, including an Afghan soldier who last year killed Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, the highest-ranked U.S. officer to be slain in combat since 1970 in the Vietnam War.
The shooting is the third insider attack on foreign forces this year. In January, three American civilian contractors were shot dead at Kabul airport by an Afghan soldier, who also was killed. In April, an American soldier was killed by an Afghan soldier inside the governor's compound in eastern Nangarhar province.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Governor Steve Beshear announced Thursday that he will direct flags to be lowered to half-staff the day family bury a Lexington airman killed in Afghanistan. Funeral arrangements for Capt. Matthew D. Roland are pending.
The Department of Defense confirms that Roland was one of two airmen who died supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel. The department says Roland died of wounds suffered Aug. 26 when the vehicle he was traveling in was attacked near Camp Antonik, Afghanistan.
Roland, 27, was assigned to the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, of Pensacola, Florida also died in the attack.
From San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base to Hurlburt Field in Florida, 812 miles, 20 Special Tactics Airmen started their trek Oct. 4 in honor of their fallen comrades.
This is the fourth U.S. Special Tactics Memorial March in remembrance of the two Special Tactics Airmen who were killed Aug. 26 in an attack in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
The Special Tactics Airmen made their way through the Humble, Atascocita and Huffman area communities Tuesday, Oct. 6.
“Less than a month later after losing two airmen, here we are ‘rucking’ 812 miles from San Antonio to Hurlburt Field in Florida which represents the training program they go through,” Lt. Katrina Cheesman, chief of public affairs for U.S. Air Force Special Tactics, said. “The training is like a two-year pipeline which is very rigorous and strenuous and tests them.
“They start their training in San Antonio at the Air Force Base then halfway through they go to Air Traffic Controller School at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, and at the very end, go to Hurlburt Field in Florida where we have the Special Tactics Training Squadron. All these training sessions are like puzzle pieces that when placed together, make these airmen into an operational warrior to can handle most situations.”
The march began in 2009 in memory of Staff Sgt. Tim Davis, a Combat Controller killed by an Improvised Explosive Device, Feb. 20, 2009, during Operation Enduring Freedom. The Memorial March is only held when a Special Tactics operator is killed in action that year.
Additionally, the memorial march honors all 19 Special Tactics pararescuemen and Combat Controllers who have been killed in action since 2001.
“We do this arduous march to commemorate and honor fallen members of Air Force Special Tactics and their families. These warriors gave their lives in defense of freedom and our nation’s security, and so every step of every mile is in memory of that sacrifice,” Event organizer, retired Chief Master Sgt. Steven Haggett said in a press release about the march.
During the walk, the 20 airmen will relay through five states, averaging 12.5 miles per leg. Each two-man team will walk approximately 90 miles during the 10-day trek, carrying a 50-pound ruck sack and a commemorative baton engraved with a fallen Special Tactics Airman’s name.
A grandmother of one of the fallen special tactics Airmen carries a photo in honor of her loved one to a baton ceremony on Hurlburt Field, Fla., Oct. 13, 2015. The team of 20 special tactics Airmen started at 2 a.m. on Oct. 4, 2015, from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, and marched 812 miles through five states to meet with Gold Star families and end the memorial march with a ceremony on Hurlburt Field. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman Kai White)
“With the baton, it’s like we are carrying them home. This U.S. Special Tactics Memorial March is important because we will always remember our fallen airmen and to showcase support to our Gold Star families because they are truly the ones who bear the cross of their child’s sacrifice,” Cheesman said. “We also host this march to educate others about what U.S. Special Tactics is all about.
“Plus, this is a challenge. We want to welcome others into the Special Tactics community if they feel inspired and challenged by what we do. But first and foremost, this walk is to honor our fallen comrades.”
For the final 4.6 miles together, and the walk for the final mile from Hurlburt Field’s front gate, the 20 airmen will meet with surviving family members of the 19 fallen Special Tactics Airmen and members of the community and march together until they reach the Squadron.
"The losses of Matt and Forrest are a terrible blow to everyone who knew them," Col. Wolfe Davidson, 24th Special Operations Wing commander, said in a statement. "These two combat controllers were incredible warriors who not only volunteered to join our nation's Special Operations Forces, but earned their way to the tip of the spear in defense of our nation,"