Bobcat
07-31-2011, 07:47 AM
Pilot flies soldier's widow to memorial dive, wall ceremony
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
Jessica McCloskey met her husband while she worked as a clerk at a Fayetteville, Ga., hardware store.
"He owned a construction business and he was taking the tags off things before he got to the checkout line so he had more time to talk to me," McCloskey said of Shawn, laughing. "We hung out one day, and hung out again, and before you know it we were married."
That was in December 2000. Less than a year later, the 9/11 attacks prompted Shawn to put his construction business on hold to join the Army. A Green Beret with the 7th Special Forces Group, Shawn became a fixture at the Underwater Operations School on Fleming Key as an instructor.
"He always wanted me to get (scuba) certified, but I was terrified," McCloskey said.
Her attitude changed on Sept. 15, 2009, when Shawn was killed by a roadside bomb that hit his Humvee in Afghanistan. At 32, he was survived by his wife and their children, 5-year-old Katie and 3-year-old Collin.
"We have two children and I absolutely refuse to be bitter about what happened," McCloskey said. "I knew what he was signing up for and he knew. As horrible as the situation is, when our kids get older, I want them to look back and say, 'Wow, look how far we've come.' "
McCloskey made it her mission to do what her husband always wanted her to do. She became a certified diver -- and in good company. In an unwritten tradition at the Fleming Key Army base, when an instructor's wife gets her dive certification, the whole team joins her on her first dive.
McCloskey, who lives in Fort Bragg, N.C., wanted to travel to Key West for her first dive, but money was tight. An Army wife she was talking to at a Special Forces barbecue in her hometown mentioned the Veterans Airlift Command, a nonprofit of volunteer pilots who fly wounded soldiers and their families to hospitals or reunions with family and friends.
"I heard about it and said no. I felt that it was for wounded warriors, people who really need it. I felt like others with more pressing needs should be using it," she said. "My friend said no, they're trying to get more people to use it and get the word out. I picked up the phone and it was, like, no questions asked."
Enter Big Pine Key pilot and snowbird Andre Bohy, president of Omni Financial in New York City. He jumped in his single-engine, four-seater Beechcraft last week to pick up McCloskey, who was visiting one of her husband's fellow Green Beret comrades in Tampa, and flew both of them to Key West.
Bohy's tail number and call sign usually is 1849 Papa, but for this mission, the air traffic controllers changed them to HRF49 Papa -- meaning Hero Flight Papa.
"This was the first time I've transported the spouse of a mortally wounded soldier," Bohy said. "Here's this 29-year-old widow with too small kids ... you can read all about this stuff in the papers, see it on TV, but until you meet these folks and hear their stories, you don't understand it. It's heart-wrenching." Not only did McCloskey take her first dive in the Atlantic Ocean off Key West surrounded by the men who served alongside her husband, she participated in the Fleming Key dive school's dedication of a new memorial that lists graduates and instructors who have died in combat. Shawn's name was added that day. "It was sort of bittersweet, but definitely more of a celebration rather than a somber ceremony," McCloskey said. "I didn't take the kids with me on this trip, but I contemplated that. I did this for me."
For McCloskey, coming to Key West was an important part of the larger healing process.
"As horrible as losing Shawn is, it doesn't mean we have to stop living and dwell on it," she said. "Our kids will grow up knowing just how big their family really is."
Including Bohy, without whose help she wouldn't have been able to make the trip.
"It's an amazing, amazing service," McCloskey said. "If you think about it, he volunteered, just so I could go down and do this and see my friends."
Bohy was never in the military, but he hopped on the chance to participate in the volunteer pilot program when he came across the Veterans Airlift Command's booth at a pilot conference about three years ago.
"Most people have no idea what military families go through. I was not in the service, so for me, that's all the more reason to volunteer for this. It allows me to contribute, if even in a very small way, to the effort," Bohy said. "She was so appreciative and that just makes you feel good. That's why we do it."
alinhardt@keysnews.com
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
Jessica McCloskey met her husband while she worked as a clerk at a Fayetteville, Ga., hardware store.
"He owned a construction business and he was taking the tags off things before he got to the checkout line so he had more time to talk to me," McCloskey said of Shawn, laughing. "We hung out one day, and hung out again, and before you know it we were married."
That was in December 2000. Less than a year later, the 9/11 attacks prompted Shawn to put his construction business on hold to join the Army. A Green Beret with the 7th Special Forces Group, Shawn became a fixture at the Underwater Operations School on Fleming Key as an instructor.
"He always wanted me to get (scuba) certified, but I was terrified," McCloskey said.
Her attitude changed on Sept. 15, 2009, when Shawn was killed by a roadside bomb that hit his Humvee in Afghanistan. At 32, he was survived by his wife and their children, 5-year-old Katie and 3-year-old Collin.
"We have two children and I absolutely refuse to be bitter about what happened," McCloskey said. "I knew what he was signing up for and he knew. As horrible as the situation is, when our kids get older, I want them to look back and say, 'Wow, look how far we've come.' "
McCloskey made it her mission to do what her husband always wanted her to do. She became a certified diver -- and in good company. In an unwritten tradition at the Fleming Key Army base, when an instructor's wife gets her dive certification, the whole team joins her on her first dive.
McCloskey, who lives in Fort Bragg, N.C., wanted to travel to Key West for her first dive, but money was tight. An Army wife she was talking to at a Special Forces barbecue in her hometown mentioned the Veterans Airlift Command, a nonprofit of volunteer pilots who fly wounded soldiers and their families to hospitals or reunions with family and friends.
"I heard about it and said no. I felt that it was for wounded warriors, people who really need it. I felt like others with more pressing needs should be using it," she said. "My friend said no, they're trying to get more people to use it and get the word out. I picked up the phone and it was, like, no questions asked."
Enter Big Pine Key pilot and snowbird Andre Bohy, president of Omni Financial in New York City. He jumped in his single-engine, four-seater Beechcraft last week to pick up McCloskey, who was visiting one of her husband's fellow Green Beret comrades in Tampa, and flew both of them to Key West.
Bohy's tail number and call sign usually is 1849 Papa, but for this mission, the air traffic controllers changed them to HRF49 Papa -- meaning Hero Flight Papa.
"This was the first time I've transported the spouse of a mortally wounded soldier," Bohy said. "Here's this 29-year-old widow with too small kids ... you can read all about this stuff in the papers, see it on TV, but until you meet these folks and hear their stories, you don't understand it. It's heart-wrenching." Not only did McCloskey take her first dive in the Atlantic Ocean off Key West surrounded by the men who served alongside her husband, she participated in the Fleming Key dive school's dedication of a new memorial that lists graduates and instructors who have died in combat. Shawn's name was added that day. "It was sort of bittersweet, but definitely more of a celebration rather than a somber ceremony," McCloskey said. "I didn't take the kids with me on this trip, but I contemplated that. I did this for me."
For McCloskey, coming to Key West was an important part of the larger healing process.
"As horrible as losing Shawn is, it doesn't mean we have to stop living and dwell on it," she said. "Our kids will grow up knowing just how big their family really is."
Including Bohy, without whose help she wouldn't have been able to make the trip.
"It's an amazing, amazing service," McCloskey said. "If you think about it, he volunteered, just so I could go down and do this and see my friends."
Bohy was never in the military, but he hopped on the chance to participate in the volunteer pilot program when he came across the Veterans Airlift Command's booth at a pilot conference about three years ago.
"Most people have no idea what military families go through. I was not in the service, so for me, that's all the more reason to volunteer for this. It allows me to contribute, if even in a very small way, to the effort," Bohy said. "She was so appreciative and that just makes you feel good. That's why we do it."
alinhardt@keysnews.com