Army Spc. Christopher J. Scott

Died September 3, 2011 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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21, of Tyrone, N.Y.; assigned to 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; died Sept. 3 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small-arms fire.

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Small town shocked by death of spc. in Afghanistan

By Jon Hand
(Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Army Spc. Christopher J. Scott of Dundee, Yates County, who loved duck hunting and his local high school football team, was scheduled to return from Afghanistan in 12 days to be married.

The 21-year-old military police officer was killed Sept. 3 while on patrol — just two months after leaving for his first tour overseas.

Scott was a 2009 graduate of Dundee Junior and Senior High School and the oldest of Tammy and Kenny Scott’s three sons, said longtime family friend Amy Francione.

“He was due to be home in 12 days,” Francione said. “The community is just in shock, and I know it’s terrible to say but — Why here? Why here? Why Chris? He just left.”

“I think you just think ‘not our community,’ that’s what I can’t get over.”

Scott had been serving in the 101st Airborne Division and was based in Fort Campbell, Ky., before deploying in July.

His parents traveled to Dover Air Force Base, Del., over the Labor Day weekend with his fiancée, Torey Oden; his brother Michael, who also is in the Army and stationed at Fort Riley, Kan.; and his youngest brother, Daniel.

Scott’s body arrived at Dover on Sept. 4. Family members have requested his body be flown into Elmira Corning Regional Airport as opposed to Rochester to reduce the amount of time it would take to have a procession back to Yates County.

The Defense Department confirmed Scott’s death Sept. 5, saying he died in Kandahar province when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Word of Scott’s death spread quickly through the small community of about 1,500 people.

Many were told at a varsity football game where the mood became somber as people took in the weight of the news, said Fred Cratsley, mayor of Dundee who coached Scott in Little League baseball.

At youth football games on Sept. 4, coaches wore ribbons in Scott’s honor.

“Everybody knew Chris; we’re not a big community and he was one of our own,” Cratsley said. “He was a heck of a guy and a community leader. As a teenager he took younger kids and he protected them and was a guy to look up to.”

In June, Army Sgt. Devin Snyder, 20, was laid to rest in her hometown of Cohocton, Steuben County, just 45 miles away from Dundee.

Snyder, also a military police officer, was killed in the blast of a roadside bomb near Mehter Lam in eastern Afghanistan on June 4.

She was the first female soldier from the Greater Rochester area to be killed in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Like Scott, she was killed just two weeks before she was scheduled to return home for a visit.

“We’re going to try to do everything that they did for Devin to try to honor him,” Francione said, including contacting the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of motorcycle riders who honor fallen soldiers by acting as a shield for mourning families and their friends from “interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors.”

Snyder and at least 23 men from the Greater Rochester area have died while serving their country in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars or from wounds suffered there.

Since January 2010, four service members from a seven-county region surrounding Bath have been killed, said Smith, who also is the manager of the Operations Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom program at the Bath Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

“We’re a small community with a very high veteran percentage,” she said.

On Sept. 4, Spc. Scott’s death was discussed at local church services, in diners and on social media websites.

A passionate high school football player, Scott was also a member of his school’s cheerleading squad and an avid martial artist who competed in tournaments locally and in other parts of the country.

He was also an avid hunter and a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Small town welcomes hero home

By Jason Whong
Star-Gazette (Elmira, N.Y.)

ELMIRA, N.Y. — Holding patriotic flags, friends and strangers stood together along Route 14 on Sept. 10 to pay their respects to a Southern Tier soldier killed in Afghanistan.

Some were Legionnaires. Some were soldiers. Some wore uniforms. Some wore shorts and T-shirts.

All stood along the two-lane road near the state police barracks to honor Army Spc. Christopher J. Scott, 21, of Tyrone, as the hearse carrying him home passed by.

Scott was killed Sept. 3 when his unit was attacked with small arms, according to the Defense Department. He was 12 days from returning home to marry his fiancée, Torey Oden.

Scott’s body was flown into the Elmira Corning Regional Airport on that morning, and the procession was taking him to Dundee.

Many lined up early along Route 14.

Rita Stucky of Horseheads stood with a large New York flag.

Stucky, a member of American Legion Post 442 in Horseheads, said she came “in support of our fallen soldier and in support of our country for the ervice that he’s provided and for everything that all our soldiers do.”

Jack Nickerson, 80, of Horseheads, another Legionnaire, anted “to honor the fallen veteran.”

As time went on, more people stood along the road.

It would be about a half-hour before the procession arrived, but already one passing driver appeared to shed tears as she slowed to pass the dozens of people carrying flags.

Other drivers honked horns in support, especially at the sight of uniformed service members uphill, where Hickory Grove Road meets Route 14. Some drivers waved. Another driver saluted.

Charlie Paone of Elmira stood among the Legionnaires, although he isn’t a member.

“I’m just a supporter of the red, white and blue,” Paone said.

“I’m very sad about this whole concept of the war and what it’s doing to our nation,” Paone said. “And I think we think we need to move forward and make some decisions on the war and where we go next.”

There were hundreds of vehicles in the procession for Scott, who served in the 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based in Fort Campbell, Ky.

In addition to family members, there were fire trucks and motorcycles, many with flags attached.

Keith Walker, 50, who lives along the route, stood in the back of his pickup truck and took photos as the procession passed.

His wife, Annette, held one side of a flag that had been draped over her own father’s casket. A family friend held the other side.

The Walkers were also joined by strangers: Earlier, a family saw all the flags, asked if they could join, and parked in the Walkers’ driveway.

“It was nice,” Keith Walker said of hosting the family. “They had the little girls with them, and their little baby. She didn’t really understand what was going on, but the kids did.

“The kids knew that there was a death and a veteran, and they wanted to help.”