Daniel Brian Hyde

West Point, 2007

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Adam Nordin on May 27, 2025:

Dan, It's 2025. I've been thinking about you a lot this year- particularly in the last 6 months. This year our classmates and I will be taking the colors as battalion commanders. It's hard to think that we are here, the "old people," and the ones who've somehow escaped - mostly unscathed - our adolescence and are now entering into the executive work force. It's like yesterday we were graduating Ranger School and now we have families and responsibilities and problems... and we will now fully devote ourselves to our battalions. I was in Kansas with many of our classmates earlier this year for a pre-command course. It was incredible to see so many people that I haven't seen for years. Some I haven't seen literally for decades. It was a reunion first, education second. I couldn't help but think of you. Being in that company was like being transported in time back to the last memories of each other. Back when we were anxiously waiting to receive our branches, getting our haircuts for Ranger School, racing each other around Olsen Hall before nervously heading off to our first assignments. Back when... All of our "catch up" stories started and ended with deployments, a life we no longer live, but are wary of. Today, articles are being published about the origination of Memorial Day after the Civil War. There's a realization that fewer Americans than ever, for the better, know someone who served, let alone perished in combat. I am glad that so many do not know the sorrow, the grief, or the shame of happily living our lives knowing others do not share these memories. Dan. You are missed, brother. I am proud to know you. I'm proud you are part of my life. And I promise to honor you, and so many others, who came before us. I ask nothing more of you except that you continue to keep us safe, to shine a line when we are alone, and to keep our compass calibrated. Until we meet again, Dan. -Adam

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