MATTHEW A. PUCINO SSG
OEF Company B, 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Boston, MA

Staff Sgt. Matthew A. Pucino, 34, died on Nov. 23, 2009, after his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device while conducting a mounted patrol in the Afghan city of Pashay Kala, in support of combat operations while serving with, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne).
He deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in July 2009 as a member of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Afghanistan. This was his third deployment in support of the Global War on Terror. He also served on a deployment to Iraq with 5th SFG (A). He was a Special Forces intelligence sergeant.

Pucino a native of Boston, Mass., and enlisted into the U.S. Army 2002 as a Special Forces candidate. He then went on to complete the Special Forces Qualification Course and earn the coveted “Green Beret” as a Special Forces engineer sergeant. He was assigned to 5th SFG, Fort Campbell, Ky., before leaving active duty to become an Army National Guard Soldier assigned to 2nd Bn., 20th SFG, Glen Arm, Md


lost to the world. At age 34, Staff Sergeant Matthew Albert Pucino laid down his life to free the oppressed. While on a combat patrol in the vicinity of Pashay Kala, Afghanistan, an improvised explosive device struck his all-terrain vehicle, thus ending this warrior’s mission. Assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) of the Maryland Army National Guard, Matthew was a Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha Intelligent Sergeant, earning numerous awards and commendations for bravery and acts of meritorious service

A roadside bomb killed Pucino in November 2009. The 34-year-old Massachusetts native grew up in Plymouth and Bourne and went to Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth. He worked part-time as a Yarmouth police officer in the mid-1990s before enlisting in the Army in 2002.
Pucino, who also served in Iraq, was assigned to the Maryland National Guard when he died.

