Based: Mountain View, Calif.
351st Civil Affairs Command
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: December 23, 2005
Baghdad, Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Fremont
High School: Macomb High School (Macomb, Ill.)
Army Reserve Sgt. Cheyenne C. Willey and his younger sister, Stacy, grew up eating their grandmother's apple pie, the recipe for which was never set down in writing in her lifetime.Do read the entire LA Times article about Army Reserve Sergeant Cheyenne C. Willey here, find comments and remembrances here, and read more here and here.
On Willey's next leave from the military, the two planned to have a bake-off to see who could come closest to duplicating it. Stacy Willey warned her brother that she had him beat. Through trial and error, she thought she had mastered the crust.
The 36-year-old from Fremont, Calif., was one of two soldiers killed Dec. 23 when a roadside bomb exploded near their Humvee in Baghdad. [Also killed in the blast was Sgt. Regina C. Reali, 25, of Fresno, Calif.]
Born on the Fourth of July in Red Wing, Minn., and named after the helicopters his father became familiar with as a soldier in the Vietnam War, he had a rare sense of duty and patriotism, even in his youth, his sister said.
The last time Willey contacted his sister was Dec. 21. As usual, he wanted to know about his two nieces -- Stacy's daughters -- asking about the older one's grades and how the younger one was progressing with her walking.
Willey was with his sister in the delivery room when she gave birth to her younger daughter, buoying her spirits with characteristic humor.
"He kept saying, 'It's OK, I'm not looking,' " she said, laughing at the memory. "But he was there for me the whole time."
In addition to his sister, Willey is survived by his mother, Patsy Miller, and stepfather, Charles Miller, both of Fremont.
He has been recommended for several posthumous awards, among them the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
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