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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Marine's death 'hard to believe'

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The small town of Hayes, La., is mourning the loss of a favorite son, Cpl. Richard Schoener, a Hawai'i-based Marine who died in an ambush Sunday in Afghanistan.

Schoener
He was 22 years old but those who knew Schoener said it seemed like only yesterday that he was the smiling class president of Bell City High School.

He was the prom king. He was the baseball player with the ready glove. He was the first one to lift a load when something needed to be done and the one who stuck around to clean up afterward.

"It has been a shock to say the least," said one of his best friends, T.J. Hoffpauir. "This is a small community and you kind of know everybody. He was very close to my family. It's just kind of hard to believe right now."

Schoener was assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment out of Marine Corps Base, Hawai'i in Kane'ohe. He deployed to Afghanistan last Veterans Day.

Hoffpauir, 21, heard the story of his friend's death at Schoener's home Monday evening.

Schoener was involved in combat operations in the Alishang District of Lagham Province. He and his platoon had been in a firefight with insurgents who holed up in a cave, both sides trading gunfire, Hoffpauir said.

Schoener and another platoon leader were the first into the cave and were killed by small-arms fire, Hoffpauir said.

His friend's actions did not surprise him, Hoffpauir said.

"He took care of people," Hoffpauir said. "He always put his friends before himself and he liked protecting people."

The two young men had been friends since preschool. They grew up playing baseball, Schoener in center field, Hoffpauir in right field.

"That was his favorite thing, baseball," Hoffpauir said. "He was pretty good at it."

At Bell City High School yesterday, Principal Reinette Guillory lowered the U.S. flag in front of the school to half-staff. Guillory said Schoener's graduating class in 2001 had barely 50 students but five or six of them are in the military, somewhere in Afghanistan or Iraq.

"Ricky was smart, quiet and well-respected among his peers," Guillory said.

She didn't know why Schoener joined the Marines but it seemed natural that he was rising through the ranks.

"He was just a fine young man," she said. "He loved his community. He would have come back as a leader in his community."

Bell City is such a small school — 515 students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 — that many students were feeling the loss personally, said Scott Nunez, assistant principal.

Everyone eats in the same cafeteria. Elementary students walk by high school seniors every day and know each other's siblings, too, Nunez said.

"We've had students absent because of this," Nunez said. "Our community is very family oriented. He has cousins still at the school, and he was a very popular young man."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.