2 Wheeler men die in Iraq
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Two soldiers with Hawai'i ties died in Iraq Saturday after their Army helicopter collided with another helicopter and crashed.
They were identified as Capt. Christopher B. Johnson, 29, of Excelsior Springs, Mo.; and Chief Warrant Officer William I. Brennan, 36, of Bethlehem, Conn. Both were assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment.
Brennan
They are the 22nd and 23rd soldiers with Hawai'i ties to be killed in the Middle East since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003. Fifteen of the dead were assigned to the 25th Infantry Division (Light).
Plans for a soldiers' prayer service at the Schofield Barracks Chapel are pending.
Defense officials said investigators are looking into the crash, which involved two OH-58D helicopters.
Brennan, a pilot, is survived by his wife, Kathy, and daughters Katelyn, 4, and Cassidy, 2, plus family in his native Connecticut.
Kathy Brennan declined comment yesterday when reached at their Makakilo home, which bore the unmistakable stamp of a young family. Children's toys sat by the front door and an American flag fluttered out front.
In one of the sad ironies of this tragedy, Brennan also lost a parent while very young. His father, a commander in the Navy, died when he was 3.
Relatives in Connecticut described Brennan as fun-loving, the kind of guy who made friends wherever he went. They spoke proudly of his military career. T.J. Brennan said her brother-in-law had joined the Army about 15 years ago with dreams of becoming a helicopter pilot. "That's all he wanted to be," she said.
Brennan, who joined the Wheeler unit in July 2003, will be buried in his home state; arrangements are pending
Johnson, 29, was the commander of Company C, 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, based at Wheeler Army Air Field. He was single. His Excelsior Springs hometown is about 30 miles from Kansas City, Mo.
Family members could not be reached yesterday, and information on memorial services was unavailable.
Johnson entered the Army in June 1998. He was assigned to the unit a year ago.
Brennan, who sometimes went by "Will," was the youngest of seven children born to a Bethlehem family well known in the area for running the Curtis House, a Colonial-era inn and restaurant in nearby Woodbury, Conn.
Military service runs in the family. In addition to his father, William Brennan had a cousin — his namesake — who also was a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. An uncle was a bomber pilot in World War II and Korea.
Funeral services for Pvt. 2 Jeungjin Kim, killed Oct. 6 in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, will be tomorrow at Central Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nu'uanu. Visitation begins at 10 a.m., with the memorial service at 11 a.m. Interment will follow at 1 p.m. at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Kim, who moved to Hawai'i seven years ago from South Korea, was a Hawai'i Pacific University student before joining the Army in April 2003.
He graduated from Roman Catholic schools in the Waterbury area, then studied at a community college, but a pilot's life was his dream, said his brother, Nicholas Brennan.
Funeral for hawai'i soldier
"He just wanted to fly," he said.
Brennan met his wife at a Super Bowl party, his brother recalled. Kathy Brennan was in the Army. They both were stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., and shipped out together for Bosnia. While overseas, she learned she was pregnant with their first daughter and was discharged.
Brennan first joined the National Guard and Reserves, then applied to Army flight school. He almost never made it — an Army bureaucrat spilled coffee on his first application and threw it away.
Besides his work in Bosnia and Iraq, Brennan flew surveillance helicopters around New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He brought a camera with him on every flight and took amazing pictures of the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks, said his sister-in-law, T.J. Brennan.
"He wanted one day to write a book about all that he's experienced and what he'd seen out there," she said. "He was proud of what he was doing over there — no question about it."
In his younger days, Brennan liked to ride his bicycle with the family cat, Ralph, on his head, his siblings said. He took care of goats for a 4-H project and played lacrosse and other sports.
When he was older, his many nieces, nephews and cousins called him "Uncle Buck," after the sloppy but lovable character in the John Candy film.
In an Easter letter to his sister, Briana Wall, Brennan wrote of his fears. These were feelings he tried to keep from his wife so she would not worry, his sister said.
"I say a hell of a lot of prayers before getting into the aircraft, and after getting down," he wrote. "It is not the fear of death that weighs me down, it is the feeling of not being there for my three girls.
"There is a very real chance that something bad could happen and they would never know me."
Advertiser staff writer Robbie Dingeman and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
