October 4, 2017

Awards & Decorations:

Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medals (6), Army Achievement Medals (6), the Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Kosovo Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Service Medal, the NCO Professional Development Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal, the Senior Parachutist Badge, the Military Freefall Master Parachutist Badge, the Driver and Mechanic Badges and the Special Forces Tab. His posthumous awards include the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Purple Heart and the Combat Infantryman Badge

Survived By:

Yost is survived by his wife, Joann, and his children, Anthony, Cheyenne, and Donovan

Honoree Bio:

MSG Anthony Ray Charles Yost was born in Flint, Michigan, on October 9th, 1966. He enlisted in the Army in 1987. His assignments included Fort Lewis, Washington, Fort Bliss, Texas, and South Korea before training and serving as a Special Forces soldier. Yost graduated from the Special Forces Qualifications Course in 1993 and was assigned that year to the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, Colorado, as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant. After serving 8 years in the 10th Special Forces Group, Yost was assigned, in 2001, to the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Training and School at Fort Bragg, NC. There, he served as a senior Special Forces Weapons Instructor. In March of 2005, he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, and served there as an Operational Detachment – Alpha Team Sargeant until his death in Mosul, Iraq, on November 19th, 2005.

Yost enlisted in the Army after discovering college alone wasn’t enough. He dreamed of being a sniper and team sergeant (team “daddy” to him) in the Special Forces Regiment. With hard work and determination, Tony succeeded in his goals and dreams of becoming a sniper, receiving his jump wings, and becoming High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) qualified. He was incredibly proud to be HALO qualified and showed his videos to anyone who came to the house. If you were invited to dinner, you were watching the videos, or you weren’t eating! Yost loved to work on guns and fulfilled his hobby by attending Montgomery Community College in NC and completing the Gunsmithing Course. After retirement, Yost wanted to open his own gun shop, Apache Gunworks, in the Fort Bragg area. He loved the location and wanted to stay close to where he could ride his Harley, work on guns, and skydive. He loved to ride his 1998 custom Harley Davidson Fatboy and would participate in many poker runs for the community, raising money for various causes or just joyriding on the weekends. His bike may or may not have occasionally had too many shots of crown or beers. Yost had a taste for Crown Royal, an ice-cold Corona, or a Budweiser. Yost would say, “Budweiser, a million Indians proven,” and that was his sense of humor as an Apache Indian himself. Yost had that kind, hardworking, loving personality with the bad boy edge full of charm. Tony lived hard, worked hard, and loved even harder.

Yost would become a team sergeant leading Operational Detachment Alpha 381 into battle in Mosul, Iraq. He had 18.5 years in the Army, 14 of which were with the Special Forces community, at the time of his death. Yost deployed on Mother’s Day of 2005 and would become an angel and hero on November 19th, 2005. He was so proud to take a team to Iraq and mentor them, doing the job he had trained to do for all those years. Yost was honored on June 26th, 2015, when one of the Special Forces Schools was named after him. The MSG Anthony R.C. Yost Weapons Training Facility is the 18 Bravo training school and part of the Special Forces Qualification Training to receive the coveted tab. It is such an honor and fitting for a man who loved working on guns, being SF, and helping those in the community. Yost trained “SF Babies,” as he said, for four years before taking his job as Team Daddy slot with the 3rd Special Forces Group.