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PCF Anthony D. Hebert
June 30, 1987 - June 21, 2007 An Irreplaceable Treasure Lost Tony was an avid golfer. In his early teens, he and his best friends bought youth memberships at the local golf course and would ride their bikes out each day and golf. Most days playing 3- 18 hole rounds. All this practice paid off. Tony made the varsity golf team his freshman year and was the number one golfer by his Sophomore year and went to State twice. Tony had three close friends he grew up with and two sister’s he tormented. He and Tiffany, his younger sister by one year, were particularly close. When they were little they did everything together and this continued through high school . Because of this dynamic, our house was always full with Tony’s friends and Tiffany’s friends and they all grew up together. Tony was a happy boy and a quiet boy. If he had something to say he would say it, but he would use as few words as possible and when done he was done. Tiffany was the exact opposite, she was an extrovert. Together they made a perfect pair. Tiffany was there to draw Tony out on occasion and Tony was there to reel Tiffany back in. When Tony told me he wanted to join the army, he was a junior in High School. I was against the idea and tried to talk him out of it. I thought he viewed the Army as some glorified video game or Movie inspired visions of Glory and Honor. We had many talks and I came to realize this was not the case. I’ll never forget the phrase he said that finally started to convince me that he was serious for the right reasons to join the Army. Tony (always the golfer) said to me, “Dad, sometimes you just have to step up to the tee.” You see, Tony was deeply affected by 9/11. He felt America was under attack by terrorist and he felt he should and could do something about it. He was willing to step up for all of us. He fully understood that by joining the Infantry he would be taking on extreme hardships and that the threat of death was very real but this is where he could do something about it. The phrase, “sometimes you have to step up to the tee” is the logo we use at Tony’s tournaments. Tony’s unit, 1/26 Charlie Company was stationed in Adhamiyah, a Sunni controled providence of Baghdad. Tony’s unit had the most casualties (31) of any unit in Iraq including Tony as one of those casualties. When speaking of Tony I always say that the reason they were the hardest hit was because they also hit the hardest. This was confirmed this summer when we received a presidential unit citation for Charlie Company. These are rare, the last one received by the 1/26 was in 1944. Amongst statistics cited was that the murder rate in Adhamiyah was eight per day before the 1/26 arrived and was reduced to 2 a week by the end of their deployment. From a community under siege to a place where kids went back to schools and shops reopen. Tony received many medals as an individual. Always soft spoken, these never impressed him, but he would have liked knowing the unit had received the presidential citation. Tony never felt he earned the medals he received, he was just doing his job and was being supported by his team members. Tony died on June 21st, 2007. He, along with five others were on patrol in Baghdad Iraq when a deep buried IED exploded flipping the Bradley they were traveling in and killing all members. Tony was nine days shy of his 20th birthday. He died too young; but in those nineteen years he showed more honor and courage than I have in 50 years. He is our Son/Brother and our Hero. Bob Hebert, Tony's Dad Portrait sponsored by: |