Home on leave, Army Sgt. Bradley Beste was there to shyly greet friends and family members.Daily Herald -- Denise Beste was proud of her son.
To show her Naperville neighborhood just how proud, she tied yellow ribbons around her trees, displayed a blue star in her window and held an open house event with his Army medals and uniform.
Home on leave, Army Sgt. Bradley Beste was there to shyly greet friends and family members.
“Everyone was gay and happy, and all his things were lined up,” said Christine Chapman, who lived next door to the Beste family. “It would bring any mother to tears.”
Beste, 22, was killed on Friday alongside another soldier in Ramadi, Iraq, Department of Defense officials said. An improvised explosive went off near their Humvee during combat operations, officials said.
Beste was assigned to the 1st Calvary Regiment, 1st Armored Division, which is based in Friedberg, Germany, officials said.
His parents, Denise and Jeffrey, moved from Naperville to Texas last year and could not be reached for comment Sunday night.
“He was just getting started in life,” said neighbor Ed Chapman, whom Beste visited when he was on leave. “He said was happy to be home, but he didn’t feel apprehensive about going back.”
Beste, the second youngest of four children, graduated from Neuqua Valley High School in 2002 before he enlisted in the Army.
He spent some years on the school’s wrestling squad and then left to take an after-school job.
Coach Mick Ruettiger remembers him as a “hard-working kid” whose “work ethic was beyond compare.”
Ruettiger said Beste remained in touch after leaving school and the two spent time together the last time the soldier was home on leave.
“He was very proud of himself for what he did,” Ruettiger said. “He could see himself developing as a person. He was going to put himself in a position to be successful and he was going to use the military to do that.”
Christine and Ed Chapman, who have known the Beste family for about 15 years, remembered Bradley Beste as quiet and conscientious. They last saw Beste two years ago, when he sat in their living room and talked about “how much he enjoyed the military and why it was a good opportunity for him,” Christine Chapman said.
A tall, fine-featured man with reddish-blond hair, Beste had “an All-American look,” Ed Chapman said. “He was someone you knew would be a soldier because he stood so tall.”
Beste had a gentle demeanor and treated his parents well, Chapman said.
“He was so happy with what he was doing,” Christine Chapman said. “Bless his heart.”