A Salute To “Whitety” White
We salute you, Brian!
CPL Dustin Donica, CPL Toby Olsen, and SPC Brian White were all great Army buddies at Fort Richardson, AK, even before they deployed together as members of Able Company to fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom, October 2006. The three friends even shared a storage locker in Anchorage, AK during their deployment. Although Dustin and Toby were KIA in Iraq, the bond between the three Geronimo paratroopers will never be broken.
Brian’s mom, Brian & Peter Shoemaker (on leave from OIF) at WRAMC.
On January 20, 2007, an IED explosion hit the Humvee of SPC Brian White, CPL Toby Olsen, SGT Sean Fennerty, SGT Phillip McNeill and SPC Jeffrey Bisson. Brian was the only survivor of that horrific explosion. He was in a coma for weeks, hanging on to life itself, and he would be a patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the VA Hospital in Tampa, Florida for 13 months going through surgeries and recuperating from his severe injuries. His recovery is nothing short of miraculous. He was awarded the Purple Heart for his service. This valiant soldier answered the call of duty for his country because he thought it was the right thing to do. A grateful nation thanks you for your service, Brian!
Brian’s Purple Heart Ceremony in Florida.
Brian is one terrific human being with a strong moral compass. He loves his mother’s spaghetti casserole and his grandmother’s Southern banana puddin’. Before his OIF injuries, Brian had a passion for bowling and running. Brian has now been admitted to the University of Southern Mississippi where he will continue his college education in computer science. He is already enjoying his new apartment in Hattiesburg, settling in before the fall semester begins. Congratulations, Brian! We are all so proud of you and wish you the very best in all of your endeavors.
If you ask Brian about Dustin, he just throws his head back and laughs with absolute delight and mischief in his eyes. “Dustin was always the instigator,” Brian says. “He could rile people up, and with merely a word, bring everything back into order. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Brian wears Dustin’s Battle of the Bands t-shirt that Judy Donica sent to him, almost all the time. He will tell you, “If it isn’t in the wash, it’s on my back!” Brian will forever miss his great friend and comrade, Dustin.
Brian and his new “Fire Chicken.”
Last fall, Brian was asked if there was anything he would really like to do again in life. His answer was, “I’d like to jump out of a perfectly good airplane once more. There’s nothing like it!” The probability of that ever happening again is unlikely, but, who knows. In spirit, Brian is a paratrooper through and through.
All the way, Whitey!
