Dennis P. Hay – Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army

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NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense
No. 900-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Chief Warrant Officer Dennis P. Hay, 32, of Valdosta, Georgia, died on August 29, 2005, in Tal Afar, Iraq, where his OH-58D Kiowa helicopter came under attack by enemy forces using small arms fire.  Hay was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colorado,

Six U.S. soldiers downed in hostile action in Iraq
Afghanistan Sun

Six  U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq in recent days, U.S. officials reported Wednesday.

ATask Force Liberty soldier was killed and three were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated on   their combat patrol southeast of Samarra at about 12:35 p.m. Wednesday.

A  soldier  assigned  to  155th  Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed in action  Tuesday when he was struck by an improvised explosive device near Iskandariyah.

A Task  Force Freedom soldier died Monday when the OH-58D Kiowa helicopter he was riding in made a forced  landing  nearTal Afar due to enemy fire. A soldier was also wounded during the crash. The soldier  killed  was Chief Warrant Officer Dennis P. Hay, 32, of Valdosta, Georgia. Hay was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry     Regiment, Fort Carson, Colorado.

Second Lieutenant Charles  R. Rubado, 23, of Clearwater, Florida, also died Monday in Tal Afar, Iraq, when his M1A2  Abrams tank came under attack by enemy forces using small arms fire. Rubado was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 3rd     Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colorado.

Sergeant First Class Obediah J. Kolath, 32, of Louisburg, Missouri, died on Sunday, in Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries  sustained on August 25, 2005, in Husaybah,  Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his position. The incident involved three other soldiers whose deaths were announced on August 27, 2005. Kolath was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

On Saturday, a Task Force Freedom soldier died when he was struck by enemy fire while on dismounted patrol near Tal Afar. He was Specialist Joseph L. Martinez, 21, of Las Vegas, Nevada, Martinez was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colorado.

A pilot from Valdosta, Georgia, was killed when the helicopter he was in came under hostile fire in northern Iraq, the
military said Wednesday night.

Chief Warrant Officer Dennis P. Hay, 32, died Monday when the helicopter he was riding in was attacked by small-arms fire from insurgents while flying over Tal Afar. The chopper was forced to land after the attack. But the pilot who was flying the craft at the time was able to get the helicopter airborne and left the area, a rebel-ridden city 260 miles northwest of Baghdad. The pilot, whose name was not released, was also wounded in the attack.

Hay, who grew up in Georgia, was living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Fort Carson.

His parents, who moved from Georgia to Florida, could not be reached for comment. He was married and had a son and a daughter, said Army spokesman James Hill.

NOTE: CWO Hay is scheduled to be laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on 24 October 2005.

3 Servicemen, 3 Stories of Dedication
Burials at Arlington Honor Those Who Fought in Iraq

Three men who chose to risk their lives for their country by serving in Iraq were laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. One had switched military branches to pursue his dream of flying helicopters; another could have retired but chose to remain in the service; and a third decided to reenlist on the condition that he be sent to Iraq.

Chief Warrant Officer Dennis Patrick Hay of Valdosta, Georgia, was killed August 29, 2005, when the helicopter he was piloting was attacked by enemy fire in Tal Afar, Iraq, near the Syrian border. Hay, 32, was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, of Fort Carson, Colorado.

rebecca-hay-photo-01

Rebecca Hay holds her daughter, Abigail, next to relatives during a service for her husband, Chief Warrant Officer Dennis Hay
of Valdosta, Georig1a. “Dennis went back for a second tour because of the Iraqi children,” a friend said.

A horse-drawn caisson led a procession through rain and blustery wind yesterday from the U.S. Coast Guard Memorial to Hay’s final resting place. A military band played “America the Beautiful” as an honor guard folded the flag covering the urn that held Hay’s ashes. Major General Charles Wilson presented the flag to Hay’s wife, Rebecca. Hay also was mourned by his children, Jacob and Abigail, parents Barry and Patty, brother Barry and sister Bridgette.

“The most important thing to Dennis was that he wanted people to know that he had a relationship with God, and he wanted to make sure that other people did, too,” said Misty Ricks, 30, a friend from Brunswick, Georgia, who had known Hay for more than a decade from Agape Christian Fellowship in St. Marys, Georgia.

Ricks knew Hay as an adventurous guy in her youth group who rode a BMX bike and liked to use it to do stunts — but only if he could execute the thrill-seeking maneuvers safely.

Hay had served as a parajumper in the Air Force before applying for a transfer several years ago to the Army so he could train to become a helicopter pilot. He hoped to use the skill one day as a missionary to bring aid to those in need.

“Dennis went back for a second tour because of the Iraqi children,” Ricks said, adding that he had told her that if others could see the difference the United States was making in the young Iraqis’ future, “they would understand why he was going back.”

Lieutenant Colonel Leon Gifford James II of Sackets Harbor, New York, was wounded September 26, 2005, in Baghdad when an explosive device detonated near his Humvee. He died October 10, 2005, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. James, 46, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 314th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 78th Division, based at Fort Drum, New York.

Friends said that James, who served as an elder at United Presbyterian Church in Sackets Harbor and helped manage its finances, had been eligible to retire from the service. But he decided to stay to fight for a cause he believed in. He kept in excellent shape — even outrunning men two decades his junior in training drills, his friends said.

For James’s full-honors funeral, a team of dark horses led the procession from the Old Post Chapel. A military band played “Amazing Grace” as the flag-draped coffin — covered with a clear plastic sheath to protect it from the rain — was brought to the grave site. Major General Wayne Erck presented the flag to James’s wife, Silvia, who was accompanied by their children, Maria, Rachael and Kathryn.

Marine Sergeant Mark P. Adams of Morrisville, North Carolina, was killed October 15, 2005, by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations in Saqlawiyah, Iraq. Adams, 24, was a reservist attached to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

A Marine honor guard from the barracks at Eighth and I streets NW in Washington carried Adams’s gray coffin to a grave site near a memorial to those who died serving in Somalia. Navy chaplain Robert Rearick delivered a sermon before the guard presented a folded U.S. flag to Gunnery Sergeant Barry L. Baker, who knelt before Adams’s father, Phillip Adams, to hand him the tribute.

Mark Adams was the youngest of three sons, all of whom served in the military. As a freshman, he joined the wrestling team at Cary High School in North Carolina, and by all accounts his performance at first was terrible. But over several years, he worked to strengthen his body and refine his technique. By his senior year, he was chosen as captain, and the team won a state championship.

Adams joined the Marines shortly after graduation but saw little action during several years stationed in the Pacific. He returned to his home town near Raleigh, where he volunteered as a coach for the wrestling team, but soon decided to return to the service.

Jean Tursam, 57, a longtime family friend, said the elder Adams told the 600 people who attended a memorial service at Colonial Baptist Church in Cary about his son’s motivation.

” ‘We’re going to choose to fight them in Iraq or we’re going to choose to fight them here,’ ” Mark Adams had said.

Tursam said that even after the young Marine was promoted to platoon leader, he still chose to take the dangerous position in the turret of the Humvee, where he was killed by a piece of shrapnel. “He wouldn’t ask his men to do something he wouldn’t do himself,” she said.

Hay, James and Adams were the 181st, 182nd and 183rd service members killed in the Iraq conflict to be buried at the cemetery.

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