Honoring a Fallen Hero
By Joe Davis
Baseball is meant to take our minds off the horrors of the world. Maj. Steve Reich was no exception.
Reich had carried the American flag while representing Team USA in 1993 at the World University games on a team that also included current major leaguers Paul Wilson, Todd Helton, Todd Walker and Dustin Hermanson. He pitched briefly in the Baltimore Orioles system in 1996 before the military recalled him to active duty.
Helton, now a first baseman for the Colorado Rockies, remembered Reich as "one of the nicest guys I ever met."
However, last week Reich was shot down in Eastern Afghanistan with 15 other U.S. soldiers in a helicopter.
Reich, 34, was on his fourth tour of duty. He had been a company commander in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., and had been married just four months earlier.
His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, and the Senior Aviator, Airborne, and Air Assault Badges. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal and an Air Medal with Valor device and the Combat Action Badge.
His life will be remembered at the town hall in Washington, CT this Sunday. In Washington, he is a role model, a hero, a son, and a baseball player.
July 10th, I will be personally connected to Reich. I have volunteered to perform the ceremonial "Taps" at his service. It will be an honor to perform this for such an honorable man.
Information from the AP was used in this article.
