Remember Army CPL Nicholas Arvanitis ~ NH Hero
Remembering Army CPL Nicholas Arvanitis, 22, of Salem, N.H. assigned to 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died Oct. 6 from injuries sustained when he encountered enemy fire in Bayji, Iraq.
Friends say that Nick had a lust for life that wasn’t easy to contain. He rattled windows when he played guitar with his metal band, Thrall. At concerts, he started most pits, slamming himself into the biggest guys he could find. Even in defeat – when another wrestler pinned him or he struck out a bat – he kept a huge grin on his face.
Nick was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division; he had already served a combat tour in Afghanistan when he volunteered to return to Iraq in August of 2006. “He wanted to be a major player in the war,” said his sister, Kim, who tried to persuade him to take a recruiting job he was offered after his first tour. “All he would say to me was, ‘I want to go with my guys. I want to get them through this and get them home.’” His friends say Nick loved being part of a team, whether it was the jazz band, the marching band, or the wrestling team. He was not intimidated by challenges or sacrifices he had to make to be part of a group.
He had hoped to pursue a career in music but after the terrorist attacks on 9-11-01, he felt compelled to enlist in the military. “After Sept 11th, Nick told me he had to do what had to be done”, said Robert Stickney, the father of one of Nick’s closest friends. “He said the music could wait’. His sister Kim said she should have guessed her brother’s future career when he was 5 – she caught him jumping off the top bunk bed onto a beanbag chair. “I said, ‘Are you crazy?’ “she said. He just grinned at her. Kim, who joined the Air Force after high school, wasn’t the only one who worried when her brother announced he was joining the 82nd Airborne, an infantry unit that frequently deploys to dangerous combat areas. Ben Adams, a history teacher at Salem High and a former airborne soldier, remembers when Nick told him he had joined an airborne unit. “He could see that I had significant concerns, “he said. “In the 82nd he was going to be in harm’s way.” “He looked at me and said, ‘Its’ something I gotta do.’ “
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvCNWaurSXo
TO REMEMBER IS TO HONOR….
