05/20/2026
Today we honor Staff Sgt. Gene "Buddy" Vance Jr., who helped save the lives of 2 American and 18 Afghan Soldiers on May 19th, 2002, sacrificing his own life in the process.
SSG Vance was a mountain bike shop manager and West Virginia Army National Guard Soldier, serving as a 98G (Cryptologic Linguist), and Persian-Farsi language-trained communicator in 2nd Bn, 19th Special Forces Group, Airborne (Airborne) when he was killed in action while on patrol during Operation MOUNTAIN LION near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
SSG Vance was the first National Guard member to be killed in direct action since Vietnam and the first WVNG member to die in battle since WWII.
SSG Vance enlisted in the Army in 1983 and trained as a Communications Systems Circuit Controller. He joined the Army Reserve in 1992 as a Supply Specialist in the 646th Quartermaster Company, Kingwood, WV. In October 1992, Vance transferred to Company C, 2/19th SFG(A) at Camp Dawson in Kingwood, WV. In 2001, his unit was placed on active duty and deployed to Afghanistan.
Following the events of September 11, the 2/19th SFG(A) stood as the Army National Guard battalion with the highest level of readiness and prepared to mobilize. By December, 2/19th SFG(A) Soldiers were enroute to the Middle East and staged in Uzbekistan until moving forward into Afghanistan. Special Forces leaders from the 2/19th SFG(A) in Kenova, West Virginia, were commanding and controlling Special Forces operations across Afghanistan.
It was also during this time that the WVNG suffered its first casualty of the War on Terror when SSG Vance was killed in action.
The 2/19th SFG(A) was authorized to remain in place for a time frame not to exceed 735 days and they continued to carry out operations that would change the landscape of the initial war in Afghanistan. Special Operations Forces from West Virginia would return to Afghanistan once again in 2009 and 2020 and remain ready to respond around the globe at a moment's notice.
Gene Arden Vance Jr. was born on November 30, 1963, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Gene Arden Vance Sr. and June Carol Steele. Gene was the oldest of three children, followed by David and Jamie Vance.
Gene's family carried a long tradition of military service. His great uncles, William "Bittle" Steele and Clarence "Buck" England, served in World War II in the Army's 4th Infantry Division, Bravo Company. Gene's father, Gene Arden Vance Sr., was a captain in the U.S. Special Forces as part of the LRRP (Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol) and became a major in the Army before retiring in the late 1970s. Gene Jr. also had two uncles, William Edward Vance and James Ray Vance, who spent their careers in the military, as did his brother David, a non-commissioned officer with the 101st Airborne, who served two tours of duty in Iraq.
Gene was heavily shaped and inspired by his family's military history and wanted to continue the legacy with his own life.
Alongside his time in the WVARNG, Gene worked to earn a college degree at West Virginia University in Morgantown and co-managed the Whitetail Bicycle and Fitness shop nearby. Friends recalled Gene as quiet and unassuming, a tall and imposing man with a passion for outdoor fitness and rock bands like the Grateful Dead. He liked wearing Birkenstock sandals and Deadhead t-shirts, and loved to bike Morgantown trails with friends. After a previous marriage left him with one daughter, Amber Vance, he met Lisa Selmon Vance, a local software engineer, when she designed a new website for the Whitetail shop. The two would marry in 2001, postponing their honeymoon when he received deployment orders.
After his death, Gene was awarded a bachelor of arts degree from West Virginia University, where he had taken classes before his deployment to Afghanistan.
He was also posthumously promoted to staff sergeant.
Information gathered from the following:
http://archive.wvculture.org/.../vancegene/vancegene.html
https://arsof-history.org/fallen/2002_vance_gene.html
https://www.soc.mil/Memorial%20Wall/Bios/Vance_Gene.pdf
