News and opinion for all the SigEp brotherhood. SigEp's "unofficial" blog.
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Two Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers who were killed in Iraq last Friday by a suicide bomber in an explosives-rigged car have been identified.
Sgt. Israel P. O'Bryan, 24, of Newbern, Tenn., and Spc. William C. Yauch, 23, of Batesville, Ark. died in the town of Jalula of wounds sustained in the attack. They were assigned to the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.
The bomber hit a convoy of U.S. and Iraqi forces on joint patrol about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, near the Iranian border. At least three Iraqis were also killed, and another six Americans were wounded.
O'Bryan enlisted in February 2006 at Memphis, Tenn. and reported to Lewis-McChord in December 2006, the base said Monday. This was O'Bryan’s second deployment with the brigade; his first deployment was in 2007.
Yauch enlisted in August 2007 and reported to Lewis-McChord December of that year. This was his first deployment.
I received this email from an alumnus named Jeff Lehmkuhl from our Cal Upsilon Chapter (Cal State San Bernardino) who is deployed and flying helicopters in Iraq. The SigEp flag flew on Jeff's helicopter during a combat sortie. Jeff is a former Chapter President and an all around great brother....and the original...
Maybe something like this would be good for the Journal and could also be used in some of the multimedia stuff we do at Conclave?
-Dave Calderon
Bros,
Attached is a photo of a SigEp banner Misha mailed to me a few weeks ago. The banner flew over Iraq on a combat sortie in the HH-60G helicopter (a combat search and rescue platform) seen in the picture. Obviously the specs of the mission are classified. The banner was flown on 10 May 2009. I will have the enclosed certificate signed my the rest of the crew and bring it back with me in a couple of weeks. As you can see by the orange glow in the background of the picture it twas not a pretty day to fly! The dust decided to take up residence on everything in the helo, to include my pathetic excuse for a mustache! I'll see you all in a couple of weeks....I'll be in southern California around the 8th of June.
Fish Out
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Brothers,...And Maggie McCloud's letter...
Timing is everything. I received this email from Maggie McCloud today (that she wanted to be forwarded to all the Tennessee Alpha Sig Eps I have on my contact list). I had no idea when Brother Renato Villacorte informed us of the great news that the McCloud’s had been selected to participate in this Christmas’ Snowball Express Disney event that the trip fell only one day after what would have been Trane’s 42nd birthday. When you look at the photo you will see that your contributions turned what would have been a day of heartbreak and gloom into a special memory those children will have forever.
It is this kind of magic that Christmas is all about! To have so many of you wanting to help almost 20 years after we all moved out of 1832 Fraternity Park Drive makes me even more certain today than when I pledged in the Fall of 1985 that brotherhood in Sigma Phi Epsilon is truly a lifelong gift.
On a related note, I apologize for not having the scholarship announcement ready for the McCloud children[...]. I hope to finally have all the details of the establishment of the scholarship and where to send contributions in the next day or two.
Fraternally,
Wade Hutchens
From: Maggie McCloudAs a TN Alpha member, I was proud to have a chance to help out this family of a brother I never met but wish I had.
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 12:25 AM
To: Renato Villacorte; Douglass Derrick; Wade Hutchens
Subject: The newsToday would have been Trane’s 42nd Birthday. We had our traditional pancake and bacon birthday dinner – his favorite, and then after Krispy Kreme donuts (also his favorite, in lieu of cake) I told them that their Dad had a gift for them – that all of Dad’s friends had a gift for him. I gave them the cards. To say they were speechless is an understatement, but when they could finally speak again they didn’t stop.
Thanks to all. They can’t wait. I was proven quite correct to hold off telling them for so long. Ok, I have done NOTHING in terms of packing, wash, etc, so I am off for a late night. Thanks to all of you for making my kid’s holiday, and their Dad’s birthday a bit brighter. I reminded them again of how blessed they are to have a Dad who touched so many people in his own life, that so many people care about them.
With aloha,
Maggie
Doug and Wade – sorry, I couldn’t immediately find other UT email addresses – please share my thanks.
PS - I didn't tell them to wear those shirts. They came down for dinner dressed like that. Go Vols!
Labels:
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Trane McCloud
This letter from Bro. Renato Villacorte reminds us that we can come to the aid of a brother even after they have passed away.
Please contact Bro. Villacort and lets make this Christmas super special for Trane's widow and children. For more background on Bro McCloud, see these prior posts.Brothers and Sweethearts,
For those of you that are unaware, SigEpVets is a group of our fraternity brothers that are also veterans and active members of our military. We formed the network to keep better track of our brothers currently in harm's way and honor those that went before them. Unfortunately, we had our first fatality in December 2006.
Lt. Col Trane McCloud, USMC/TN Alpha, was serving in Iraq when his helicopter crashed. He left behind a wife and 3 young children. Although we never met, this was my brother Marine as well as our brother SigEp and I felt this loss personally. Since then, I've been on a mission to honor his memory and legacies.
We were able to hook up Maggie McCloud and the children Hayden(9), Grace(7), and Meghan(4) with Snowball Express. Snowball Express is a charity that organizes a winter vacation for the Survivors of those who have fallen in this current war. This year, they are bringing out almost 1,200 widows/widowers and their children to Anaheim. They will take part in multiple celebrations along with visiting Universal Studios and Disneyland. After their Snowball Express agenda is complete, SigEpVets is treating the McCloud family to a few additional days in the area so they can also visit Legoland.
I am writing to invite any and all of you to join the McCloud family as they visit the theme parks during their visit. They will be at Universal Studios on December 17th, Disneyland on 18th, and Legoland on the 20th and 21st. Additionally, there will be a welcoming parade for all of the families on the 19th in Anaheim, adjacent to the Convention Center.
This would be a great time to reconnect with old friends along with meeting the McCloud Family. We can honor Trane’s memory by simply shaking their hands and offering the love and friendship that we share in our brotherhood.
If you are interested in more details, please contact me at Rvillac2@aol. com. I hope to hear from many of you.
Sincerely,
Renato G. Villacorte
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"When we found out that he had been taken, it hit you just like a train," says Sigma Phi Epsilon David Hankins.
November 16, 2006, is a he will never forget. His fraternity brother and close friend Jon Cote was kidnapped in Iraq. Cote had just called a week or two earlier to say he was coming back to the United States in December and wanted to move into the house for the spring semester.
"From the first moment you met him, you felt he was your best friend," says Hankins. "I can honestly say that he was probably one of, if not the most, popular well-liked people in our pledge class."
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To the family of Jonathan Cote,Brother Cote was abducted in Iraq while working as a contractor there. He had planned to return to school and his SigEp fraternity. After many months of uncertainty over his whereabouts his body was recently recovered and positively identified.
On behalf of National Board of Directors and the Grand Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, let me extend my condolences to the Brothers of Florida Alpha, and most especially to you, the family of Brother Jonathan Cote. I was deeply saddened to hear of the confirmation of his death by the military officials in Iraq. His service to our nation and commitment to Sigma Phi Epsilon will be an example to others of a life abruptly cut sort, but very well lived.
Let us all strive to be living examples of Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love in all that we do each day.
In the spirit of Sigma Phi Epsilon,
Steve Shanklin
Grand President
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The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity is mourning the death of one of their own. Francis Cote, the father of former University of Florida student, Jonathan Cote has confirmed on his website that a body found in Iraq belongs to his son. President of the Sig Ep Fraternity, Matt Sloan says Cote's fraternity brothers are glad to finally have some closure.Link to article is here
By DIANA MOSKOVITZMissing UF student's body possibly found in Iraq - 04/21/2008 - MiamiHerald.com
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com
The body of a former University of Florida student may have been found in Iraq, according to an online posting by his father.
Jonathon Cote of Getzville, N.Y., had been missing since November 2006, when he was one of five men abducted while in a convoy near the southern Iraqi town of Safwan, near the Kuwaiti border.
[...]
''We were visited today by U.S. officials today who told us that a sixth body has been recovered in the Basra area of southern Iraq,'' Cote's father, Francis Cote, wrote on Saturday on the website home.freecote.com.
[...]In Gainesville, the news was bittersweet, said UF student Matt Sloan, 21, who pledged the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity in the fall of 2005 with Cote.
Sloan went on to become fraternity president. Cote stayed at UF then headed for Iraq.
Two weeks before his capture, Cote e-mailed Sloan saying he would be back home in December and wanted to move into the fraternity's house.
Sloan said his friend asked him to ''save me a spot.'' Then he disappeared.
''On the one hand, we're holding out hope he is alive and will return safe and sound,'' Sloan said. ``And on the other hand, we want closure.''
Labels:
Iraq,
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ΣΦΕ..dorks:Dorky, but nice, eh? Ouch.
Okay so Sigma Phi Epsilon are pretty much the dorky fraternity, but they are nice guys. Tonight was they first time I hung anywhere near them but I was pleasantly surprised. Nathan Smith is in that fraternity and I've known him for a very long time. I may just got to their cookout on Friday. I'm not sure yet, though.
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I hate having to do these posts. If your chapter has lost a brother you know it leaves a hole in the brotherhood that cannot be filled.Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan K. Dozier seemed destined for soldier's boots.
"He's been playing soldier since he was a tiny boy," Dozier's mother, Martha Day Cabe said in a phone interview Monday. At age 5 and 6, he, his sister and their friends would go into the woods wearing camouflage and "play Army."
Dozier, a former Middle Tennessee State University student, was among six soldiers who died Jan. 9 in Sinsil, Iraq.
He died from wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations, according to a Department of Defense press release.
[...]
Jonathan Dozier attended Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and studied international affairs. He was also a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
[...]
Carl Dozier said he wants to make sure that his son is remembered as more than a casualty of war.
"He had a vibrant life," he said.
The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity from Baylor University in Texas found the perfect way to remember a fallen brother. It donated the Lt. Col. Kim S. Orlando Memorial Fountain to the Fort Campbell Fisher House. It was officially dedicated this week.
The Fisher House offers lodging for family members of wounded or ill soldiers recovering at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital. The fountain will provide all who visit with a peaceful spot to meditate and remember an extremely brave soldier.
The Leaf Chronicle - www.theleafchronicle.com - Clarksville, TN
Sigma Phi Epsilon will host its "Gifts for Troops" date auction fundraiser tonight to send goodies to a U.S. Marine unit in Iraq for the holiday season.
The fraternity will host its first date auction and sell T-shirts for $15 among other things to raise money for a marine platoon in Iraq, said Alexander Kuiper, director of Veterans for Students in Student Government and fraternity member.
Fraternity hosts date auction fundraiser for troops in Iraq
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We had earlier posts about Trane here and here. If you can help them out please contact the organizers. I know it says "before Sep. 1" but give them a call anyway. I bet they can work something out.Dear Friend-
On December 3, 2006, Lieutenant-Colonel, Trane McCloud (USMC) was killed when his helicopter crashed in Iraq. Trane was a career Marine who left behind a family of three children and a wife.
Since joining the military, Trane has lived in Alexandria, VA. But, his roots run deep in Grosse Pointe, MI. He attended Trombly Elementary, Pierce Middle School and graduated from Grosse Pointe South High in 1985. He lived in Grosse Pointe almost twenty years. He always referred to it as his hometown.
Since Trane’s death, we have been on a mission to show our support for this true American patriot and his family. On October 26, 2007, we are holding a benefit charity auction at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. Proceeds from this event will be given directly to The McCloud Family Fund—a fund developed to support his children’s future.
Your charitable contribution of auction item(s) will help raise money for this deserving family. Perhaps you have season tickets to a local sporting event and would be willing to give up a game. Perhaps you own a business and would gladly give up some of your product or services. Dinner for two at your restaurant, a guitar lesson, a personal training session, a piece of original art…Whatever you feel capable or comfortable giving, we would like to put it to auction and give the proceeds to Trane’s family.
If you are willing to donate an auction item to the cause, please contact one of the two organizers below before Sep. 1, 2007. A forthcoming email and invitation to the event will follow.
Thank you,
Terry Ayrault Gerry Finazzo (313) 610-5439 cell (586) 909-2915 cell theayraults@comcast.net gjf1232@comcast.net
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ON MAIN SUPPLY ROUTE TAMPA, Iraq -- Surrounded by darkness, an AK-47 at his side, Jonathon Cote considered his future from the driver's seat of a black Chevy Avalanche hurtling through southern Iraq early last November.For Abducted Guards, Iraq Wasn't Just About Money - washingtonpost.com
Months earlier, Cote had been a reluctant accounting major at the University of Florida, a popular 23-year-old freshman who'd enrolled after four years in the Army. Cote pledged Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and collected $5 covers at a bar called the Whiskey Room. He drove a red Yamaha R1 motorcycle around campus until one evening he did a wheelie and was arrested for drunk driving.
Broke and despondent, Cote spoke to an Army buddy, who told him he could make $7,000 a month protecting supply convoys in Iraq. On his days off, his friend told him, he'd get to go jet-skiing on the Persian Gulf. Cote was concerned that he might lose his Florida driver's license, but in Iraq he would pilot a company "gun truck" with a belt-fed machine gun mounted in back.
"Basically I was looking for a feeling that I didn't have, and this job provided that," Cote said, his iPod set to shuffle as he steered his truck through the soft Iraqi night. "It's a distraction from the DUI, how I couldn't find a degree that I liked in college. And then there's the money. I have $30,000, and I'm going back to school with a plan."
"Life-threatening situations straighten you up fast," he said.
He had already announced his intention to return home on his U.S. voice mail and had picked a new major, exercise physiology.
On Nov. 16, Cote's plan was undone by the realities of Iraq. Driving their gun trucks along the same stretch of highway where he had sketched his future, he and four colleagues from Crescent Security Group, a small private firm, were ambushed and taken hostage. The status of the four Americans and one Austrian, 25-year-old Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, is unknown. Cote's 24th birthday passed Feb. 11. His drunk-driving case was dismissed after the seizure.
Every week State Department officials brief the family of 24-year-old Jonathan Coté on the fate of their son, a University of Florida student who has been missing in Iraq since he and four other security contractors were abducted in November.There is more at the link, but it may make you angry. We had an earlier story too.
The news is never good.
[...]
The U.S. government appears to have "written off" the captured contractors as a "lost cause," said retired Col. Gerald Schumacher, a former Special Forces soldier and an expert on private contractors in Iraq.
"It is very unfortunate that when contractors get captured, the amount of effort to recover them is minimal compared to what you see if an American soldier gets captured," Schumacher said.
Coté, a former Army paratrooper, returned to Iraq to work for Crescent Security Group after completing his freshman year. He planned to use the money to finance his studies at UF.
He was lured back to Iraq by a former Army buddy who noted that private-security pay is four times that of military pay. Hazard pay and bonuses can bring monthly income to $7,000 or more.
"It was the money and the adventure, too; even college life was a little slow for Jon," said Sigma Phi Epsilon pledge brother Joey Dal Santo, 20, of suburban Chicago.
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Jonathan Cote, of Gainesville Florida, is one of three hostages show on an Iraqi videotape. He appeared in good condition according to sources who saw the tape. The three men were employed by Crescent Security Group - a Kuwaiti company - and have been missing for six weeks.
Cote was a student at the University of Florida for a year, his father, Francis Cote, told the Times-Union on Wednesday.
Cote, originally from Getzville, N.Y., also has family in Florida, including his mother, Laurie Cote, in Aventura, Francis Cote said.
Cote spent this summer after his first year working as a guard for Crescent Security Group in Iraq. His father said he had planned on returning to school right before he was kidnapped Nov. 16.
Before he enrolled at UF, Cote spent four years in the Army as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Francis Cote said it's been tough, but the new videotape provides some relief to the family. He said the real concern is when the tape was made.
"I just hope it's recent," he said.
Members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at UF, of which Cote was a member, sent his family a plaque honoring him for his contributions to his country.
"It's nice to know that he's in people's prayers," Francis Cote said.
The video shows all three men, then zooms in on each hostage's face as he speaks.
[...]
Next is Cote, who's the only hostage with visible signs of injury. He has slight bruising and swelling around his nose and red splotches on his face.
"I work for a private security company," Cote says. "I'm asking the American people to put pressure on the government to leave Iraq to help me and my friends get out of here."
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"Wade Hutchens, who was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity with McCloud and graduated with him from the University of Tennessee in 1989, said his friend's funeral will be held in Alexandria, Va., tomorrow, followed by burial in the afternoon at Arlington National Cemetery.
'He gave his life so thousands all over the world could have a better one,' Hutchens said by telephone from Asheville, N.C. 'This Friday, he deservedly will join the greatest patriots America has ever known in the Arlington National Cemetery.'
Hutchens said a trust fund has been established for McCloud's widow and the couple's three young children. Donations should be sent to the McCloud Family Fund, c/o Barnes & Sherry Financial Management, 713 Main St., Port Jefferson, N.Y. 11777.
Hutchens said checks should be made payable to Margaret McCloud, his widow. Anyone wishing their contribution to be specifically for the children's education fund should make checks to College America, he added."
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There is too much more to quote here, but read the article to see how outstanding this man was.ELIZABETHTON - "He was a good Marine, he loved the military," Ron McCloud said Monday about his son.
The proud father had learned just hours earlier that Maj. Trane McCloud had been killed in Iraq over the weekend when the helicopter he was riding in lost power.
[...]
His father remembered him as an outstanding athlete even as a young boy. He made the All-City team in football in Detroit, playing linebacker for the Grosse Pointe team. He also stood out as a center fielder in Colt League baseball for teenagers. As a 14-year-old he told his father he was going to catch someone loafing to first after making a solid hit. He was true to his word, throwing the ball to first base from center field in time to make the out.
After graduating, McCloud went to the University of Tennessee, where he studied liberal arts and history. He graduated in 1989 and enlisted in the Marine Corps just in time for Desert Storm, during which he served on the USS Missouri.[...]
During his time on the ship, Ron McCloud said the ship's captain grew fond of the young Marine and encouraged him to attend Officer Candidate School. He was accepted.
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Trane McCloud
