Army Capt. Pierre E. Piche 29, of Starksboro, Vermont.
Piche died when two 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Mosul, Iraq. He was assigned to the 626th Forward Support Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Died on November 15, 2003.
Complex soldier wanted to teach
Captain had `sense of purpose' in Iraq
By Bill Glauber
Tribune staff reporter
December 5, 2003 To his mother, Army Capt. Pierre Piche will always remain the studious little boy who asked serious questions about the existence of God and the nature of the universe, discussed Spinoza at the age of 6 and played Beethoven on the piano.And through his life, he remained a romantic, his mother, Lisa Johnson, said.
That romantic spirit was evident in the hundreds of notes Piche left for his wife, Cherish, before going to war.
And the romance carried on even after his death when his widow pulled out a winter coat and discovered two of those notes that read: "I love you" and "We will always be together."
"This is someone who was a reader, a pianist, someone who was complex and very much in love," Johnson said.
Piche, 29, of Starksboro, Vt., was among 17 soldiers killed when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Mosul, Iraq, on Nov. 15.
Piche, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, joinedthe ROTC to pay for college, graduating from Middle Tennessee State.
He was due to leave the military in January, his mother said, and planned to enroll in graduate school to fulfill a dream of becoming a college history professor.
Johnson said that Piche had a "sense of purpose" early in his tour of Iraq, helping the Iraqi people, discovering what life was like in a foreign land during war and its aftermath.
Johnson said her son expressed concern for his safety before his final helicopter flight. She said he was flying to Baghdad for three days of leave.
"He was as brave as the day is long," she said. "He did not want to get on that helicopter."
Natural musician: When it came to music, Army Sgt. Timothy L. Hayslett of Newville, Pa., was a natural. For his 10th birthday, he received a trumpet, took the instrument from the case and immediately played an impeccable version of "Happy Birthday."
"That knocked us all out of our seats," said his mother, Mary Hayslett. "Later, we used to laugh and say he was a 15-year-old with a 50-year-old brain. He liked old-time rock 'n' roll. He loved Bob Seger and ZZ Top."
And later, he grew to love country music, telling friends that he wanted the George Jones song "Choices" played at his funeral.
Timothy Hayslett, 26, a member of the 1st Armored Division, was killed Nov. 15 by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Iraq.
"Timmy didn't have a mean bone in his body," his mother said. "He could take a bad situation and put comedy in it."
Hayslett dropped out of high school and became a cook, but found his calling in the military. After receiving his general equivalency diploma, he joined the military, following a path blazed by his brother, a Marine; father, a Vietnam veteran; and grandfather, a World War II veteran wounded in Germany.
At his funeral, the Jones song was played.
"I'm going to miss the long talks we had together," Capt. Joe Ruzicka told mourners, according to The Sentinel of Carlisle, Pa. "He wasn't one of my soldiers. He was one of my best friends."
Pupils at a nearby elementary school assembled and waved flags as the hearse bearing Hayslett's body passed.
"The whole town came out with flags and saluted," his mother said. "Even people who didn't know Timmy paid their respects as he went by in that hearse."
Honor to his regiment: Army Sgt. Jay Anthony Blessing, 23, of Tacoma, Wash., died Nov. 14 when the vehicle he was in struck a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kunar province.
Blessing, who enlisted in 1998, was a rifleman with the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Army Ranger Regiment.
According to a statement from the regiment, Blessing "traveled to all corners of the world in support of the global war on terrorism, had won numerous awards and fought valiantly to `uphold the prestige, honor, and high esprit de corps"' of his regiment.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
We honor his service and his life on Memorial Day and always.
