Captain Stanford Shaw

Basking Ridge, New Jersey

In May 2011, Capt Shaw assumed duties and responsibilities as the Operations Officer and Deputy Camp Commander for the Jungle Warfare Training Center. He subsequently attended and graduated from the Malaysian Army Jungle Warfare Operations Course in PULADA, Malaysia. After completing his tour at JWTC, he was reassigned to the Individual Training Course, Marine Special Operations School.

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From May 2012 to March 2013 Captain Shaw was a student at ITC and the MARSOC Team Commander’s Course. Upon completion of both schools, he was assigned to 2D Marine Special Operations Battalion where he served as a team commander.

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Formal Schools attended: The Basic School (TBS), Infantry Officers Course (IOC), Combat Hunter, Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor Course, Malaysian Army Jungle Warfare Operations Course, Expeditionary Warfare School (EWS) (distinguished graduate), MARSOC Individual Training Course (ITC), MARSOC Team Commanders Course (MTCC), SERE, and the USMC Combatant Diver Course.

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Personal Awards: Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Navy Unit Commendation, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Sea Service Deployment ribbon (with two stars).

Stanford was lost on March 10, 2015 when the helicopter he was aboard crashed during a training mission in Florida. He was an infantry officer and a member of the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion.

Obituary

Captain Shaw was born in Basking Ridge, NJ, and attended Ridge High School. He was Captain of the varsity lacrosse team and the student government president. After graduating in 2002 he attended the United States Naval Academy.

While at the United States Naval Academy he played club lacrosse and was the 6th Company Commander. He completed his degree in Political Science with a Bachelor of Science and upon graduating in 2006 he accepted a commission as a Marine officer.

Captain Shaw was assigned to Echo Company at The Basic School (TBS) and graduated in January of 2007. Following graduation, he immediately began training at the Infantry Officer Course.

In April 2007 he graduated from IOC as an Infantry Officer and was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. In May 2007 he was assigned as the Platoon Commander for 2nd Platoon, Alpha Company. During August of 2007 he deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Upon returning from this deployment Capt. Shaw was reassigned as the Weapons Platoon Commander, Alpha Company. He deployed in this capacity to Iraq again in 2009 where he served as both the Weapons Platoon Commander and Company Executive Officer. Upon returning from OIF he was reassigned as the Weapons Company Executive Officer and later as the Battalion’s Assistant Operations Officer. After completing the Battalion’s pre-deployment training cycle for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit he was reassigned to 3D Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan.

In July 2010, Capt. Shaw was assigned to 4th Marines, 3D Marine Division and soon took command of Headquarters Company, August 2010. The company deployed to Camp Fuji, Japan, for training in October 2010 and again in February 2011, to Thailand in support of Exercise Cobra Gold. In May 2011, he was reassigned to the Jungle Warfare Training Center on Camp Gonsalves, Okinawa.

In May 2011, Capt Shaw assumed duties and responsibilities as the Operations Officer and Deputy Camp Commander for the Jungle Warfare Training Center. He subsequently attended and graduated from the Malaysian Army Jungle Warfare Operations Course in PULADA, Malaysia. After completing his tour at JWTC, he was reassigned to the Individual Training Course, Marine Special Operations School.

From May 2012 to March 2013 Captain Shaw was a student at ITC and the MARSOC Team Commander’s Course. Upon completion of both schools he was assigned to 2D Marine Special Operations Battalion where he served as a team commander.

Formal Schools attended: The Basic School (TBS), Infantry Officers Course (IOC), Combat Hunter, Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor Course, Malaysian Army Jungle Warfare Operations Course, Expeditionary Warfare School (EWS) (distinguished graduate), MARSOC Individual Training Course (ITC), MARSOC Team Commanders Course (MTCC), SERE, and the USMC Combatant Diver Course.

Capt. Shaw’s personal awards include: Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Navy Unit Commendation, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Sea Service Deployment ribbon (with two stars).

Remembrances

NBC Sports host and reporter Kathryn Tappen has covered 17 outdoor hockey games during her broadcasting career, but Saturday night’s Stadium Series event in Annapolis will stand out from the others, regardless of what happens on the ice between the Capitals and Maple Leafs.

“There’s no question that this is going to be the most personally significant outdoor game that I’ve ever broadcast,” said Tappen, who will host the pregame and intermission coverage from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium alongside analysts Jeremy Roenick and Keith Jones.

The added meaning for Tappen stems from the tragic events of March 10, 2015, when her cousin, Capt. Stanford “Ford” H. Shaw III, was among seven members of the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash off the coast of Florida. Four members of the Louisiana National Guard operating the helicopter during the training mission also died in the crash.

The 31-year-old Shaw, a 2006 graduate of the Naval Academy, served two tours in Iraq and another in Afghanistan, and he was engaged. His fiancee, 2009 Naval Academy graduate and Marine Corps Capt. Lindsay Pirek, will be at Saturday’s game along with Shaw’s parents, Ford and Mona.

“It’s really remarkable to have them be able to join me,” Tappen said. “The Naval Academy has always been a special place for my family, and now it’s even more so. It’s going to be a great weekend to be back on campus. Anytime I can be there, I just feel that much closer to my cousin.”

Tappen, 36, always considered Shaw more like a brother. They were two of eight cousins separated by seven years on her mom’s side who grew up within a few miles of each other in New Jersey and saw each other every weekend. Tappen described Shaw, who hung his Navy flag everywhere he went, as one of the most passionate Naval Academy graduates she has ever met. After Tappen left NHL Network in 2014 to join NBC Sports, where her responsibilities include coverage of Notre Dame football, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank sent her a large care package of Notre Dame gear. Tappen emailed her cousin, who was stationed in Afghanistan at the time, to ask if he and his fellow officers would be interested in some Fighting Irish swag.

“He said, ‘I’m not wearing that,’ ” said Tappen, who added that Plank eventually arranged for a package of Navy-branded gear to be sent overseas instead.

Tappen, a Rutgers graduate, visited Shaw in Annapolis at least once while he was a midshipman. The last time she was on campus before this weekend was in October 2015, seven months after her cousin’s death. It was the week before Notre Dame hosted Navy in South Bend, so Tappen and a few of her NBC colleagues were in town to chat with Navy players and coaches. During their visit, they met with Vice Admiral Walter E. “Ted” Carter, the U.S. Naval Academy Superintendent, who escorted them into Memorial Hall, where Shaw’s name was displayed among the names of other alumni who died in service to their country.

“I was very emotionally raw at the time,” Tappen said of the experience. “I think being back there this weekend will be more a celebration to be there and to really share in the moment. I know he’ll be there with us for sure.”

Saturday’s broadcast will feature interviews with representatives from the Naval Academy and video of U.S. military personnel stationed around the world. Play-by-play man Mike Emrick was scheduled to tour the campus Friday, wind-permitting. The aircraft carrier flight deck design and model fighter jet that surrounds the rink, scheduled performances by military musical ensembles and 500 midshipmen in the stands will only add to the patriotic pageantry of the NHL’s first outdoor game at a service academy. Tappen, who recently returned from covering the Olympics in PyeongChang, is especially excited to see the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team, which will be honored during the second intermission.

“They’re just an incredible group of role models who I look up to, so being able to broadcast that game with my colleagues and share that moment with them was a highlight of my career,” Tappen said of the Americans’ shootout win over Canada in the gold medal game.

Tappen said Shaw would “hands-down” be at Saturday’s game, were he still alive. Shaw was a standout lacrosse player in high school, but he got more into hockey after she started covering the Bruins in her first job out of college at NESN. Tappen remains close with many of the military friends Shaw used to brag to about his cousin’s awesome sports broadcasting career. She serves as an ambassador for the Marine Raider Foundation, a nonprofit that provides support to active duty and retired MARSOC Raiders and their families, as well as to the families of Raiders who have lost their lives.

“For me, it’s a matter of giving back to the organization that gave so much to us while we were going through the most difficult time in our lives,” said Tappen, who helped organize the foundation’s first charity fundraiser in New York later this year. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t try to think about how Ford would do things, or how he would want me to do something, or the way he acted, or the way he embraced life.

“He was just such a larger than life personality. I just try every day not to let the little things bother me, and if I can honor him in some way, the best way I can is to give back.”

From The Washington Post on March 2, 2018:

Captain Stanford Shaw

A 2006 graduate of the Naval Academy was among seven Marines and four soldiers killed Tuesday night when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training mission in Florida.

Marine Capt. Stanford "Ford" Henry Shaw III, 31, died when the helicopter crashed in dense fog near Eglin, said Capt. Barry Morris, spokesman for Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

Shaw, who was from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, was 6th Company commander at the academy and a political science major. He played club lacrosse.

"You did not want to be on the receiving end of Ford's pranks," said his sponsor, Judy Buddensick of Eastport.

She laughed at the memory of Shaw setting ahead all the clocks in his dorm room. His roommate left an hour early for a morning march.

Lt. Chelsea Hassett, a 2009 graduate, was in Shaw's company at the academy. She remembered when food ran out in the dining hall.

"He had us all get up from the table and walked us over to (Dahlgren Hall) and bought us all pizzas," she said. "After that one gesture, I knew Ford was going to take care of us. He was probably like that with his Marines."

Shaw was engaged to be married to an academy classmate of Hassett's at the time he was killed.

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The helicopter that crashed and killed Shaw was carrying six other special operations Marines based in North Carolina, along with four National Guard soldiers from Louisiana. All were killed.

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