I, too, prayed that it wasn't Pete. As I write this, I re-play in my head the moment of the hardest hit my life has ever taken: learning that Pete was one of casualties aboard the MH-53E SeaDragon that failed on July 16, 2003. The thing is, after the crash our family got to meet the people Pete worked with in Sigonella... other pilots and crewmen at HC-4. And I didn't see anyone that Pete would have let die in his place on that doomed helicopter, had he been given the power.
Thanks so much for sharing what you have about Pete. When he died, I felt like it was my job to tell everybody who he was and what he was like. But as I listened to other people... such as you... I realized that the only way I would ever truly know him myself would be through all the people whose lives crossed with his and revealed a facet I never could have known. You've just added to my picture of him... and I am grateful.
