Daniel Brian Hyde

West Point, 2007

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Daniel Hancock on March 10, 2009:

This one really hurts. If it's the first one I've truly experienced the knowledge of a true and respected friend dying, then I am certain it's infinitely harder for your friends and your family. I'm so sorry for their loss of you. You were a guy I always respected. Your work ethic, your willingness to serve, your determination. The fact that you could be a leader of your classmates while remaining genuine peer of them, never simply taking on false party lines of a higher up and always being yourself as a leader of others. I always saw a lot of similarity between us the relatively few times our paths crossed. A few things I'll always remember about you. Calculus II during our Plebe year. Both of us usually seemed half-clueless about the theory behind the work expected of us, but I remember you wanting it simplified and working hard until you could do the work. Just getting the job done. I learned a lot from your perspective in that class. And working out in the Mac basement. Seems like a lot of times we ran into each other in there. It'd just be the two of us in those old, musty workout rooms. Always working too hard to have more than an casual chat between the odd set and usually in a hurry between classes, cramming our workouts in between many other responsibilities. That image of you was very much you. Not in the new, cool Arvin gym showing off your work ethic and making the rounds seeing and being seen. Instead, quietly working your tail off. Doing what you needed to do to be successful without being the least bit concerned for getting credit for it. That's the mentality for genuine success and everyone who knew you at all recognized that in you. And finally, saying hello at the Chapel every other Sunday or so. Usually you sat near the back, too. Always the quiet, dependable example of a leader and a man. I know your Soldiers and your unit were better off for having you as their leader and a part of it. You were inherently an advantage to any organization of which you were a part. That's why this is hard. It doesn't make any sense. You were as good if not better than any other lieutenant in the Army, as a Soldier and as a person. This is truly one of those times where I must rely on my faith. God has a purpose for you. This will all make sense in time. Your loss will help bring peace to a troubled land and save the lives of future countrymen. Otherwise, nothing in this world has a purpose if someone as much of a credit to this world as you has his life cut so short. And I refuse to accept that. I pray that the others who know you and are doing their own soul-searching about life and Army service and sacrifice can arrive at this concept of logic and faith. We all must have that comfort right now. Well Done, Dan. Be thou at Peace. -Daniel

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