A fallen soldier has returned home.
Army Specialist Zack Shannon of Dunedin was killed March 11 in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. He was 21 years old.
His body arrived at MacDill Air Force Base Monday morning and received an escort to Curlew Hills Memory Gardens in Palm Harbor. The escort carried Shannon's body from MacDill down Bayshore Boulevard, where many people lined the street carrying American flags.
The escort continued through the streets of Tampa, across the Courtney Campbell Causeway and into Clearwater. It ended at the Palm Harbor funeral home.
Outside of his family's Dunedin home, patriotism abounds.
"He knew there was a possibility he wouldn't come home," said Kimberly Allison, Shannon's mother. "But he wasn't scared."
Family members say Shannon slept through mortar attacks, Skyped with his mother through the roar overhead of F-16s and never complained of the difficult conditions.
"He loved his job," said his father, Chip Allison. "And whatever he could do to better himself at his job is what he wanted to do."
Shannon died during a nighttime training mission when his Blackhawk helicopter crashed. Five others also died in the crash.
Shannon's family includes three brothers, each of whom served. The oldest, Joe, served in the Army, Robert in the Navy and Steven in the Army National Guard.
"He wouldn't want anybody to sit there and, you know, shed tears all day for him, you know," said Joe Mirrione, one of Shannon's brothers. "Be happy and celebrate his life."
They knew him as the prankster, the one who played tricks but made everyone laugh.
The brothers joke that they paved the way for him growing up, but they say he went back and built that same road even better.
"Somebody asked him, 'you're going to Afghanistan right before Christmas, how do you feel about that?' " said Kim Allison. "He goes, 'well, at least I know another soldier gets home to his family.' "