Remembering Master Sgt. Corey Hood
Memorial donations may be made in honor of Master Sgt. Corey Keith Hood to the Reds Community Fund or Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cincinnati.
Donations may also be made to Lakota Athletic Participation Fee Fund or the Boys & Girls Club of West Chester/Liberty. Checks the Butler County charities should be made payable to the Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty, noting the designated fund in the memo line. Checks may be mailed to: Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty, 8366 Princeton Glendale Rd., Suite A2, West Chester, OH 45069.
Friends, family and other mourners said their final goodbye to Master Sgt. Corey Hood at Lakota West High School’s football stadium with laughter, memories and tears.
Hood, who played football and wrestled at Lakota West, was ornery as a kid, played Army growing up, loved his Ohio State University Buckeyes and was a fan of “The Hunger Games” movies.
He loved life and family, and took pride in the fact he considered himself “a bad ass uncle,” his brother-in-law Steve Hunt told the nearly 2,000 people who attended the public funeral service Saturday morning.
“Is this not how Corey would want it?” Hunt asked the crowd, which agreed with him.
Hood, 32, died on Aug. 16 from injuries suffered in an accident the day before during a performance at the Chicago Air and Water Show. He was posthumously promoted to master sergeant Monday. Members of the Golden Knights parachute team served as pallbearers for Hood, and they carried his casket before the home stands on the stadium’s track at the 50-yard line.
Hunt said Hood loved to joke around and had a saying he was fond of: “Sgt. Hood is solid steel, made of nothing but sex appeal.” But when it came to talking about any of his five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he didn’t talk about it other than calling it “playing Cowboys and Indians.”
Childhood friend Adam Price said Hood wanted to be a soldier since he was a kid, always playing Army down by the creek near their home. After graduating from Lakota West, he left for the Army.
“I asked him if he would be scared to go to war,” Price said. “Corey’s only reply to me was, ‘This is what I signed up for.’”
Before the service, Middletown’s Team Fastrax and a single Golden Knight team member performed a tribute jump. Being a Golden Knight was something Hood wanted, said Hunt.
“When he left us, he was doing what he loved to do,” he said. “In all the years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen Corey happier or more fulfilled than in the past few years.”
Since he began jumping in 2010, Hood had logged more than 500 free-fall jumps and 75 military static line jumps.
Hunt called Hood, who was highly decorated, earning two Bronze Stars, two Meritorious Service Medals, five Army Achievement Medals, a Master Parachutist Badge and Combat Action Badge, an American hero.
A private graveside burial services was held at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hamilton.
Hood is survived by his wife Lyndsay, parents Carrie Mills and Tom Hood, and siblings Jennifer Hunt, Kelley Curley, Kristen Hood and Sam Shannon Jr.
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