Hometown: Honolulu, HI
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 1325, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) “Green Beret”
Date of Sacrifice: June 20, 2022 - Puyallup, Washington, USA
Age: 34
Conflict: No declared conflict

Along with brothers Kevin and Dylan, Nicholas “Nick” Guard was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Bruce Guard, sold irrigation equipment and his mother, Robbie Ann Kane, worked in community development.

The family lived in Maui for a time, where Nick completed elementary school. They returned to Honolulu, and Nick attended Niu Valley Middle School and Kamehameha Schools. He excelled in academics and sports, played saxophone, and enjoyed art. His mother recalls Nick spending “countless hours skateboarding.”

He graduated from Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu with the high school class of 2005. According to his wife, Cydney, he often felt like something of an outsider. Later in life, this experience would drive Nick to “always make sure everyone around him was included.”

Serving as a Marine

In June of 2006, Nick joined the United States Marine Corps Reserves on a Reconnaissance Marine contract. His mother recalls him saying, “The Marines are the best—and if I am doing this, I want to do it with the best.” In July of that same year, he was sent to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California, for boot camp.

While in boot camp, he suffered a leg fracture and had to later join up with another squad. Despite the setback, Guard was named as Company Honorman. According to the Marine Corps, only one Marine in the company (450-550 recruits) is chosen as “the one who has demonstrated the highest degree of discipline, proficiency, bearing, physical fitness, and basic leadership traits that exemplify the highest standards of the United States Marine Corps.”

He was also named the company Iron Man—the recruit with the highest combined physical performance.

Guard was sent next to Camp Pendleton for Marine School of Infantry training. He again caught the notice of his fellow Marines and was chosen for the Private Paul Ison Warrior Award—given to the Marine chosen by his fellow students as the one they’d most like to serve with in combat.

By 2007, Guard was selected for Marine Corps 4th Force Reconnaissance Company and deployed to Iraq in 2008, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Starting a Family

After returning from Iraq, Guard traveled home to Hawaii. While continuing his service in the Marine Reserves, he took a federal job in military security and was based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kāne‘ohe.

In 2009, mutual friends introduced Guard to Cydney Fong, a Californian who was in Waikiki, Hawaii, with high school friends to celebrate their college graduation. With friends, the two hiked and “hung out for a week,” which led to long-distance relationship as she returned to California for nursing school. The two would later marry and welcome two children: Mattix and Leilani.

After Cydney completed nursing school, she accepted a hospital position in Bismarck, North Dakota. Nick’s military security job in Hawaii ended in November 2013. He flew to Bismarck to join her, taking a job at a superstore warehouse. “A Hawaii -born native wearing nothing but jeans and his beloved scout sniper sweatshirt…” Cydney recalled, “he was welcomed with 20-degree weather.”

The family moved to Yuba City, California, in 2014, where Nick took jobs at a golf course—biking to work every day rather than buying a car. “Every job he did, he made an impression on everybody with his work ethic,” Cydney recalled. “Whatever job it was. But he wanted to get back into the military.”

Army Special Forces Green Beret

In March of 2015, Guard joined the U.S. Army under an 18X (Special Forces Candidate) contract. He completed the Special Forces Qualifications course on his first try, becoming one of the Army’s elite Green Berets in March of 2017, and was assigned to 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington.

Now a Sergeant First Class, Guard deployed with his unit to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in 2018. There, he helped train Afghan security forces in counterinsurgency tactics—to combat terrorism and stabilize the region.

Returning to the United States, SFC Guard sought yet another challenge. Already qualified as a jump master, dive supervisor, and scout sniper, he took on Ranger School—the Army’s premier combat leadership course—earning his Ranger badge in June of 2019.

“He was incredibly focused and determined,” Cydney said, “He needed to finish [the program] on the first try or he’d miss the birth of his daughter.”

Cydney recalls Nick’s passion for fitness: “Any chance he got to work out, he worked out. He’d fill a sack with sandbags and ruck (walk with weight on your back) 14 miles in the heat. He’d go out in the snow and tow the kids and me on a sled.”

He returned to Joint Base Lewis McCord as a Weapons Sergeant, with the family settling in the nearby community of Puyallup, Washington.

Much to the shock of his family and many friends, on June 20, 2022, at age 34, SFC Guard died in Washington State after struggling with the mental and physical impacts of his military service.

A combat Veteran, Sergeant First Class Nicholas Kau‘ilokoikaika Franklin Guard dedicated his life to serving his country with distinction. He served in both the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army—deploying to both Iraq and Afghanistan in the Global War on Terrorism.

He is laid to rest with his fellow soldiers and Marines in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, in his hometown of Honolulu. Some of his ashes were also scattered at Sandy Beach—where he had spent many days bodysurfing with friends—and in the mountains of Ka‘au Crater, where he often hiked with family.

Sources
Card photo and story details contributed by Mrs. Cydney Guard, SFC Guard’s surviving spouse, and Ms. Robbie Ann Anelanani Kane, SFC Guard’s mother.
Travis Manion Foundation: Nicholas Guard
U.S. Army (via Ancestry.com): Biography—SFC Guard, Nicholas KF
Til Valhalla Project: In Memory of CPL & SFC Nicholas K.F. Guard
Mountain View Funeral Home: Nicholas Kau'ilokoikaika Franklin Guard
Burial Site: Find a Grave

< Previous Hero | Next Hero (pending) >