Remembering Fallen Shipmates – Part I (N3N5)

CDR Rob Schlegel, USN, Though he contemplated a career in journalism, Cmdr. Robert Allan Schlegel, 38, of Alexandria, Va., followed his father and two brothers into the Navy and was recently promoted to commander. It was the highest ranking received in his family–which has 60 years of naval experience–and earned the 15-year veteran a new office at the Pentagon. There, on the second floor, he scheduled and assigned the cruise routes and dates for Navy ships, according to his sister-in-law, Debbie Schlegel, who has known him since they attended Gray-New Gloucester High School together in Maine. His office was believed to be at the point of impact where the jetliner crashed into the Pentagon, said his family. “He’d always come over and play with our kids, getting that `uncle’ time in when [his brother David] was out at sea,” Debbie Schlegel said. “He was an all-around great kid.” After high school, Schlegel left Maine to attend Washington and Lee University in Virginia, where he majored in journalism and minored in French. He worked as a reporter at the Lewiston Sun Journal in Maine but changed careers and trained to be an officer in the Navy. In 1996 he was named the commanding officer of the Atlantic Tomahawk Afloat Planning System. Before he moved to the Pentagon last year, he was executive officer for the destroyer USS Radford. An avid sports fan, Schlegel loved to play hockey, watch football and compete with his brothers and nephew at video games.

CAPT Jack Punches, USN-Ret., 51, of Clifton, Virginia, a civilian employee with the U.S. Navy.

• I prayed I would not know any of the victims on that fateful day as the events unfolded. The horror of the events will remain with us forever and your memory as well. You will personalize this event to our family. Our sons played baseball together in Little League and high school. Jack, like my husband, often assisted in coaching. Jack was a devoted father and a gentle man. My prayers go out to his family. — Aurora White, neighbor and friend

LCDR Pat Murphy, USNR, Flossmoor native Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Jude Murphy had served on nuclear submarines and had recently moved to New Jersey with his wife and two children. He was a reserve officer who was at the Pentagon Tuesday when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building, said his godfather, William Slavin, who shared a Chicago Heights dental practice with Murphy’s father. Murphy, 38, grew up in Flossmoor and graduated from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights in 1981.

LCDR Ron Vaulk, USN, On September 11, 2001; RONALD JAMES, LIEUTENANT COMMANDER U.S.N.R. died at the Pentagon while serving as a Watch Commander at the Navel Command Center. Beloved husband of Jennifer M. Vauk (nee Mooney) of Mt. Airy, MD; devoted father of 3 year old Liam and yet to be born baby; devoted son of Hubert and Dorothy Vauk of Nampa, ID; brother of Charles, David, Gary, Dennis Vauk, Teri Masterson, Celia Shikuma, Lynne Caba, and Patricia Vauk; son-in-law of Carol and Patrick Mooney, brother-in-law of Alissa and Chris DeBoy. Ron is also survived by 18 nieces and nephew

LT Scott Lamana, USN, Mike and Wendy Lamana left Baton Rouge less than 12 hours after American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon Tuesday. They were driving to where their son, Michael Scott “Scotty” Lamana, had surely died, though there was no body. Lamana, 31, was a U.S. Navy lieutenant who worked in the Pentagon. He had been a 1992 graduate of Louisiana State University and then joined the military. By Tuesday afternoon, as the Pentagon remained engulfed in flames and rescue workers publicly admitted that no survivors seemed likely to be found, Lamana’s parents hopped in their car, bound for Washington D.C., according to relative Ronnie Chatelain. They were sure their son hadn’t survived, Chatelain said, because authorities had told them he was unaccounted for, and they knew Lamana would call to reassure them if he could.

ITC Don Young, USN, In high school, Donald McArthur Young was the football player who got the scholarship to college, the “cool guy” whom all the girls liked, remembered his football coach George Miller. “He was a good kid, really dedicated not only to athletics but academics as well,” Miller said. He joined the ROTC at WilliamFleming High School in Roanoke, Va., and stayed involved, even while he played football on a scholarship at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. After graduating, Young joined the Navy because he felt it was his duty to work for his country, Miller said. The 41-year-old Young was working as an information systems technician in the Pentagon when he was killed. “It was important for him to do what he could for his country,” Miller said. “I think his wife (Felicia) wanted him to quit, but he didn’t. He loved America that much. And he wound up dying for his country.”

IT1 Johnnie Doctor, USN, 32, of Jacksonville, Florida, an information systems technician first class in the U.S. Navy.

ET1 Ron Hemenway, USN, 37, of Shawnee, Kansas, an electronics technician first class of the U.S. Navy.

AW1 Joseph Pycior, USN, Joseph John Pycior Jr. was a Navy man through and through, the son, grandson and nephew of Navy veterans. He spent almost 20 years in the service, served on the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and was a veteran of Desert Storm. He also happened to really like playing with Legos. “He really was a big kid,” said his widow, Terri Pycior. Mr. Pycior, a Carlstadt native, was working at the Pentagon on Sept. 11 when a hijacked plane crashed into the building. The aviation warfare systems operator first class, just months away from his Navy retirement, was killed. Mr. Pycior, 39, was looking forward to starting a new career as a middle school teacher, focusing on his favorite subject, history. The Civil War buff had completed correspondence courses at Thomas Edison State College in May and was supposed to collect his bachelor of arts degree in history during a ceremony in Trenton on Oct. 13. Instead, his wife and two sons, Joey III, 10, and Robbie, 8, came from their home in Landover, Md., and accepted the degree for him. From his youngest days, Mr. Pycior wanted to join the Navy, said his mother, Arlene Pycior. He was in the Navy Brigade as a boy and entered the Navy Junior ROTC at East Rutherford’s Becton Regional High School, where he met Terri. A week after graduating from high school, Mr. Pycior enlisted in the Navy. He served in the Persian Gulf twice, on P-3 airplanes and in the recruiting field in Philadelphia. He began working at the Pentagon in 1999. “With any job he was given, he was very conscientious with his job,” his mother said. “He was a good father, a good husband and a good son.” Mr. Pycior also loved being Webelos den leader of his older son’s Cub Scout pack and motivating the young boys, Terri Pycior said. “He was like the life of the party,” she said. During Labor Day weekend, the couple went to the Cherry Hill area and talked with real estate agents about houses. They wanted to settle down, get a dog. They promised the boys it would be their last move. Mr. Pycior was looking for a house with a basement. He was going to make a special room with no carpeting, where he and sons could build huge models, made of Legos. Along with his mother, his wife and his two sons, Mr. Pycior is survived by his father, Joseph J. Pycior. He was predeceased by a brother, Gregory.

IT1 Marsha Ratchford, USN, For her nearly 15 years in the Navy, Marsha Ratchford traveled wherever her orders sent her. There was Hawaii and Guam and Japan and Seattle and California. Washington D.C.–the Pentagon–was to be her family’s last stop. “She was retiring after this,” said her husband, Rodney Ratchford, Friday night. Asked to describe his wife, Rodney Ratchford didn’t even pause: “The main thing about her,” he said, “is that she was just the most loving mother.” The Ratchfords, who have been married 13 years, have three children: a son who is 11, a daughter who is 8, and another daughter who is barely 18 months.

OS2 Nehamon Lyons, USN, When Nehamon Lyons IV visited relatives in Alabama over the 4th of July, he was full of talk about how much he loved working in the U.S. Navy and living in Washington, D.C. “He was very happy, very high-spirited, excited,” said his cousin, Latrice Racy. The 30-year-old operations specialist second class had a fairly new posting at the Pentagon. He was there when the plane crashed Tuesday. “He was kind of shy, a very giving person, very hard-working and dedicated,” Racy said. Lyons planned to make a career in the service.

DM2 Michael Noeth, USN, 30, of Jackson Heights, New York, an illustrator/draftsman second class with the U.S. Navy.

SK3 Jamie Fallon, USN

Ms. Judith Jones, 53, of Woodbridge, Virginia, a civilian employee with the U.S. Navy.

Mr. Khang Nguyen, 41, of Fairfax, Virginia, a Navy contractor.