Fort Carson soldier remembered as a fighter and a patriot

A 19-year-old Fort Carson soldier who died in a gunbattle in Afghanistan on Saturday is being remembered as a fighter who spoke his mind and kept his softer side carefully guarded.

Spc. Robert Donevski was killed near Abad in Farah province, in western Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced today.

A fellow soldier told Donevski’s family that he was shot in the head when his unit came under fire by gunmen. His brother, Christopher Donevski, said he was told that Donevski fought bravely to protect himself and his comrades.

“During a battle, he was always the guy up front. He got shot saving his buddies,” Christopher Donevski said.

The native of Peoria, Ariz., in suburban Phoenix, died a few hours later after being taken to a hospital, family members said. He was the 39th soldier from Fort Carson to die in Afghanistan. An additional 255 of the post’s soldiers have died in Iraq since 2003.

He reportedly was the unit’s only casualty in the firefight. He served in the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team.

Donevski is survived by his brother and parents, Linda and John Donevski, of Sun Valley, Ariz.

An avid sports fan, he played intramural basketball and had a 4-0 record in an amateur boxing league before entering the military. He followed the Phoenix Suns and the Buffalo Bills — his mother’s home team — and loved partying, playing Xbox games and hanging out with his friends.

He was intense and occasionally intimidating — a born debater with strongly felt convictions, a friend said.

“Even if he was wrong, he’d argue with you until he convinced you he was right,” said Stephen Northrop, of Scottsdale, Ariz. “You definitely had to have self-confidence to be around him.”

At the same time, his friend Sally Deadman knew him as a “softy.”

“He would always text me and be so hard on himself when he would cry or get emotional about leaving all of his friends and family,” she said in an e-mail. “I don’t think many people got to see that side of him, but I’m glad I did.”

The son of a Vietnam veteran, Donevski knew from an early age that he wanted to join the military, motivated more by a sense of obligation to his country than following in his father’s footsteps.

Although he dropped out of Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria, he cruised to his GED diploma once he learned it was required to join the Army, earning the equivalent of a B-plus average, Northrop said.

He joined the Army in the summer of 2008, over the objections of his brother and mother, who worried about his safety.

“He said, ‘Momma, this is something I want to do. I want to serve,’” Linda Donevski said.

To his friends, he laid out the decision as a no-brainer: “He said, ‘I don’t want to push pencils. If I’m going to die, I’m going to die doing something,’” Northrop said.

Before leaving for Afghanistan, he made his friends swear they would be there for his family if anything happened to him. After news of his death reached suburban Phoenix, Northrop and another friend took his mother a dozen red roses.

Donevski’s body is expected to arrive in the U.S. on Saturday.  A memorial service with military honors is being planned for Phoenix Memorial Park.