Marine's death devastates young pen pals in Iowa

Thursday, March 1, 2007
Marine's death devastates young pen pals in Iowa

By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER

EDITOR'S NOTE: Each month, the P-I remembers the servicemen and servicewomen with ties to Washington who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, today, 40 kids from Harding Middle School will decide how best to honor a fallen Marine from Washington.

For about a year, the school's student council had corresponded with 27-year-old Sgt. Travis Pfister. The Marine, who hailed from the south-central Washington town of Richland, was on his third deployment to Iraq when he died last month.

On Feb. 17, the day of Pfister's funeral in California, the Harding students nearly 1,500 miles away wore T-shirts from Pfister's "Sea Knight" helicopter unit, HMM-364, nicknamed the "Purple Foxes."

"The kids were emotional. A lot were upset; a lot of tears," said James Franta, who with another teacher, Deb Hess, is faculty adviser to the student council.

"It really brought the war home in a couple of ways," Franta said. "One, though they had never met face to face with Sgt. Pfister, they grew attached to him. And it brought home the nature of war itself, and the possibility of harm, through that bond with Sgt. Pfister."

Pfister was the only member of the armed forces with strong ties to Washington to die in Iraq in February, and the 155th killed there since the war began in March 2003.

Pfister and six others perished Feb. 7 when the helicopter in which they rode crashed in a field northwest of Baghdad. The helicopter was shot down.

Pfister, who graduated from Hanford High School in Richland in 1997, was to return home next Monday to his unit's base in Camp Pendleton, Calif., and a reunion with his wife, Jessica, also a Marine sergeant at the base.

The two met in 1999 at a Christmas party. Travis Pfister left the corps in 2003 to work for Boeing. He re-entered in 2005 when he learned his unit was slated to return to Iraq.

Jessica Pfister told the North County (Calif.) Times newspaper that she did not want her husband flying anymore, fearing that he could be shot down.

Yet as an experienced sergeant she knew he felt responsible for those in his unit, especially the younger Marines.

"He told me he was very concerned about them. They had the look of fear in their eyes, and he wanted to be there to look after them," she told the newspaper.

On the day he died, he had sent his wife an e-mail. "He said he loved me very much, and he couldn't wait to get home," Jessica Pfister told the paper.

The couple, who married in 2001 in a ceremony attended by Purple Foxes, had no children. The Iowa children, however, feel grafted to them. The student council hopes Pfister's widow can come to Iowa sometime in April when they expect to dedicate their memorial to him, Franta said.

In a remembrance site on MSNBC, the Harding student council posted a message after Pfister's death last month:

"Our school, Harding Middle School in Cedar Rapids, IA, 'adopted' Sergeant Pfister as part of our 'Adopt A Soldier' program. We immediately fell in love with the humor of Mr. Pfister and looked forward to our weekly exchange of e-mails. Our school was deeply saddened when we learned that all soldiers on a helicopter crash were killed; one of which, our good friend, Travis. God's blessings to the Pfister family from our school in this time of struggle for them."

Children would send "care" packages to his helicopter unit and compose questions to Pfister. When he had time off duty, the Marine sergeant routinely responded via e-mail.

"We tried not to get kids' hopes up. We told them that soldiers had a job to do, and if they didn't hear back from them, it wasn't because they were being ignored," Franta said.

Yet Pfister answered at least once a week.

Known by his friends in Richland as a funny, charismatic and caring guy, Pfister's missives exposed the children to not only the serious side he saw in Iraq, but also at times treated them to his famous sense of humor. Over Christmas, Pfister left them in stitches, joking about having to roast a camel instead of a turkey for the holidays.

Through Pfister's life and death, the children learned more. The idea of participating in the program was not to espouse a political view about Iraq, Franta said, but to expose the children to the men and women serving their country.

"We hope the kids get compassion out of it; you would want people to take care of you and not forget if you are far from home. We also want them to understand patriotism, that being a citizen is an active-participation activity; you can't just be passive," Franta said.

"We want our kids to remember."

ON THE WEB

For a list of those with ties to the state who have died, visit goto.seattlepi.com/162597

For information on all military casualties, see militarycity.com/ valor/honor.html

You can also find out more about Travis Pfister and his unit at hmm-364.org/iraq-crash.html

P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com.

Ellie