US Department of Defense PRESS RELEASES
No. 1027-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
13. October 2006
DoD identifies Army casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Sergeant Scott W. Dyer, 38, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., died on October 11, 2006 in Banditemur, Afghanistan as a result of combat operations. Dyer was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
REGISTRATION NUMBER: 061013-01
RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 13, 2006
PRESS RELEASE: Army Special Forces soldier killed in Afghanistan
US Army Special Forces Public Affairs Command Office
FORT BRAGG, NC (USASOC News Service, October 13, 2006) -- An Army Special Forces soldier stationed here was killed in southern Afghanistan on October 11 while deployed in support of combat operations.
CW2 Scott W. Dyer, 38, deputy division commander, assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Operations Forces here, died from injuries sustained while supporting combat operations.
Deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in August 2006.
A native of Titusville, Fla., Dyer enlisted in the Army on November 11, 1987 as a cavalry scout. After completing individual basic and advanced training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, he was assigned to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana. In 1993, Dyer volunteered for Special Forces training and, after completing the Special Forces Qualifying Course, was assigned to the 3. SFG as a Special Forces engineer. He served with the 3. SFG until January 2002, when he was assigned to the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion as Civil Affairs Engineer.
In 2003, Dyer volunteered to attend Technical Officer Candidate School, graduating in June of that year. He was transferred to the 3rd SFG in February 2004 as deputy department commander.
His awards and honors include the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Expeditionary Medal, War on Terrorism Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, NCO Career Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Infantry Badge Combat Badge, Master Paratrooper Badge, Military Freefall Master Badge, Military Freefall Paratrooper Badge, Air Assault Badge, Ranger Token and the Special Forces Token. His posthumous awards include the Bronze Star Medal for Valor and the Purple Heart.
Dyer is survived by wife Jodi, son Casey, daughter Sidney, mother Sandra Miller and stepfather Steve Miller of Tequesta, Florida, father Carl Dyer of Alexandria, Virginia, and sisters Tawnia Peterson of Orlando, Florida and Dawn Hill of Rockledge. , Fla
Courtesy Orlando Sentinel: October 14, 2006
Army Special Forces soldier Scott William Dyer died smiling in a helicopter over the mountains of southern Afghanistan this week, his mother said on Friday.
Dyer was hit by heavy fire on Wednesday. His men tried to save him by getting his wounded body onto the plane.
But it was too late. When Dyer's captain took his hand, the soldier looked up, smiled, and walked away. He was 38 years old.
"He lived every second until he died," his mother, Sandy Miller, said Friday.
"We were very proud of him," he said.
Dyer is the 26th Floridian to die in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Raised in Brevard County, Dyer was a Chief Warrant Officer assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He received numerous awards before his death, posthumously receiving a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for bravery. His burial will take place at Arlington National Cemetery.
In addition to Miller, Dyer is survived by his wife Jodi, 37, and their children Casey, 10, and Sidney, 6, of Sanford, North Carolina; and sisters Tawnie Peterson from Chuluota and Dawn Hill from Rockledge.
Dyer grew up in Port St. John, where Miller and her children moved after their divorce.
There they became close to Dyer's grandfather, a World War II Navy veteran who worked in the space industry. He told the boy about his adventures during the war.
When Dyer was 5 years old, he told his mother that his future was decided.
"There were two things I wanted to do: I would be a soldier and I would ride a motorcycle," Miller said.
"He later added, 'Jump out of planes,'" he said.
Life on the Brevard coast was beautiful, Miller said, and Dyer plunged into it. As a student at Titusville High School, he was on the football, wrestling, and track teams. She could have gone to college on a wrestling scholarship but decided against it, her mother said.
Within a week of Dyer's graduation in 1987, he enlisted in the Army as a cavalry scout.
Dyer was an athletic man and the army suited him well. He graduated top of his Army Ranger class, Miller said, and volunteered for the Special Forces in 1993.
"He was proud of what he did," Miller said.
Even as opinion turned sour about US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, he told Miller that conflict was the only way to stop terrorists from attacking the US, she said.
He also believed in family. He met Jodi when he was assigned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and knew right away they would fall in love, Miller said. They married in 1989 at Cherry Down Park in Cape Canaveral.
Dyer had a hard time balancing his love of family and the military, Miller said, but he did. At home in Sanford, North Carolina, he coached his sons' athletic teams and often took them and their friends wakeboarding. They took family trips to Hawaii and Alaska.
When he was in Iraq or Afghanistan, he spoke to his children via the Internet and a webcam every day, even on the anniversary of his death, Miller said.
It happened after dark, Jodi and others told Miller. His team hovered over a mountain peak in a helicopter.
Dyer was the first to jump. Ground fire hit him. His men pushed him to safety, but he was already badly injured.
Hours later, Miller received a phone call at his home at Jupiter.
"Mom, Scott died," Jodi told Miller. Within minutes, Miller drove to North Carolina to prepare for her son's funeral.
18. October 2006:
Tequesta's Sandy Miller watched her grandson Casey Dyer on Saturday as his mother Jodi pinned the Special Forces emblem to his football helmet, then his teammates' parents marched onto the field to add emblems to their helmets as well.
It was a small step back to "normal" for the 10-year-old, whose father, Scott Dyer, 38, was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday after his Black Hawk helicopter came under small arms fire.
Miller's son Scott was on his third tour of Afghanistan when he was killed. Dyer was a 19-year-old military veteran, an Army Ranger, a member of the Special Forces and one of the elite high-altitude skydivers. "He has a wonderful heritage," said Miller of the Dyer family home in Sanford, North Carolina near Fort Bragg.
"He graduated with honors from the Ranger class in July 1992, the Special Forces class in 1993, and the NCO class with honors three years ago," Miller said. “I hear stories about this amazing person. A lot of people have been telling us what we call the 'Scott stories' and last night we were out by the lake with a case of beer and telling Scott stories until 2am."
Miller said he received a call from Afghanistan on Tuesday telling him 500 people were in attendance at the ramp ceremony, where the military loads the soldier's coffin onto the plane to take him home.
"That was at 11 p.m.," he said. “There were people from all nations fighting with them and Scott and I were talking on a webcam on Yahoo three or four times a week and he would tell me how good the Swedes or the English were. And they were there for him on the ramp."
A memorial service is scheduled for Thursday at Fort Bragg's JFK Chapel. Scott's coffin is in Washington awaiting burial at Arlington National Cemetery, his mother said. The two services will mark the life of a man his mother called "my best friend and number one father in the whole world."
The eulogy at Thursday's memorial service will be delivered by Rick Fritps, another corporal who was also a classmate of Dyer's when they both attended Titusville High School. Dyer's daughter Sidney, 6, will sing a song in her father's service.
"A contingent of 14 of his friends from Titusville are coming to Fort Bragg for the memorial service," Miller said.
“Scott has been in the ministry for 19 years and has made the greatest friends. We had calls from Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, Nigeria, everywhere he was. They come by the hour and by the day. The outpouring of love and support from Titusville and around the world is wonderful."
Neighbors in the Miller's Tequesta neighborhood are now trying to coordinate efforts to plant flags along Miller's Street in time for the 10am funeral. on Thursday as a token of his support for the family.
Miller is full of praise for Dyer's wife, Jodi.
“These military wives of Special Forces husbands who are on the field know their husbands will be out of the country at all times. What a wonderful group of women they are and what a remarkable woman my daughter-in-law is.
“Sidney, 6, is outgoing and doesn't really understand what that means yet. Casey is easygoing, he played tag on Saturday and his mom sent him back to school on Monday. We thought it would be best if he started to bring some normality back into his life."
In addition to his wife Jodi and children Casey and Sidney, Dyer is survived by his mother and stepfather Sandy and Steve Miller of Tequesta; her father, Carl of Alexandria, Virginia; and her two sisters Tawnia Peterson from Oveido and her husband Chris and Dawn Hill from Rockledge and her husband Michael.
Scott Dyer's memorial service will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. m. at Fort Bragg. Funeral services are at 1 p.m. 26 Oct 2006 at Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honors including a horse drawn caisson, bagpipes, 21 gun salute and "taps".
"The funny thing is, Scott didn't like horses, and here he will be in a horse-drawn carriage in Arlington," his mother said.
According to Miller, while he was home on vacation, Dyer spent time helping rebuild basketball courts and other recreational facilities for children in the neighborhood.
Because of this dedication to children's recreation, donations in lieu of flowers should be made to the Scott Dyer Memorial Fund for the Children's Recreation Committee of the Carolina Lakes Property Owners Association, 91 Clubhouse Drive, Sandford, N.C. 27332.
Despite being 7,000 miles away, Army Chief Petty Officer Scott W. Dyer made his family his priority.
Whenever he could, he talked to his wife Jodi and their children Casey, 10, and Sidney, 6, via webcam.
"We looked at each other on the computer, made faces and made each other laugh," said Jodi Dyer, whose husband was on his second tour of Afghanistan.
Dyer of Cocoa Beach, Fla., died on October 11, 2006 from injuries sustained when he jumped from a helicopter during a fight in Banditemur, Afghanistan. He was 38 years old.
Hundreds of mourners, many in uniform, gathered at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday to pay their respects to the dear friend, father and son.
Dyer was the 41st person killed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to be buried in Arlington.
A military band led the procession through the blustery wind to the grave site, where a chaplain preached a sermon. A brigadier general presented American flags to Dyer's wife; her mother, Sandy Miller; and his father Carl Dyer. Mourners wiped their eyes while a bugler, standing between the rows of white tombstones, played taps.
Dyer was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Nearly 400 people, including friends from elementary and high school, packed the John F. Kennedy Memorial Chapel in Fort Bragg last week for a memorial service for Pintor. Another 500 stayed outside in tents.
"Every friend he made he kept for life," his wife said. "He would call and talk to his friends for hours and say he would cook me dinner, but he never did."
Since his death, dozens of friends have posted comments in an online scrapbook.
Mark Kenda, of Clearwater, Fla., said he'd been friends with Dyer since seventh grade.
"You made the ultimate sacrifice to make this world a better place for those who stay," Kenda wrote. "I was fortunate enough to be able to call Scott my boyfriend."
Dyer's 19-year military career took him to Africa, Haiti and Bosnia, and twice to Iraq. He has received many awards and honors including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal and Humanitarian Service Medal.
As a member of the Special Forces, or Green Berets, he was trained to jump from helicopters at high altitudes, his wife said. He also learned Creole French and Arabic, using the latter in Afghanistan to help train local troops.
"When she was there, she said she would make a difference," said Jodi Dyer. "They were making progress and he just hoped that eventually they could pull back and the Afghans could take care of themselves."
When Dyer wasn't deployed, he coached his sons' basketball, soccer and baseball teams, his wife said.
The last time they spoke on the phone, he had just returned from an assignment and was exhausted, he said. But his spirits lifted when she told him her son had won his soccer game.
He will re-enlist in two years, his wife said.
"He wanted to re-register, but he didn't want to miss another football game or another degree," he said. "He was 100 percent willing to spend time with his kids."
DYER, SCOTT WILLIAM
- CW2 US-ARMEE
- DATE OF BIRTH: 09/02/1968
- DATE OF DEATH: 10.11.2006
- BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 8428
- NATIONALFRIEDHOF ARLINGTON
Michael Robert Patterson
Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington to a former US Army officer. So it was not surprising that sooner or later his interests led him into American history and in particular into American military history. Many of his articles can be found in well-known portals such as the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Miguel Howard