WEST POINT — A 2007 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point died in Iraq on Saturday, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
First Lt. Daniel B. Hyde, 24, of Modesto, Calif., was mortally wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle in Tikrit.
According to the defense department, Hyde was a platoon leader assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team in the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. He was deployed in October.
Hyde’s family learned of his death Saturday evening when three U.S. Army representatives visited the family’s home. According to their hometown newspaper, Daniel’s mother, Glenda Hyde, was home alone at the time.
“They knocked kind of ferociously,” she told The Modesto Bee. “I was startled and I almost didn’t answer it. Then I realized: Oh, this is what happens when something happens to your kid.”
Photo: Newly commissioned 2nd. Lt. Daniel Hyde pauses in thought and prayer after the traditional hat toss during the United States Military Academy's 2007 Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony in Michie Stadium in West Point, NY on Saturday, May 26, 2007.
Lt. Hyde was a stand-out engineering student at West Point, graduating in the top 2 percent in a class of 978 cadets. He went on to earn his Ranger tab and airborne qualification.
“He felt there were things that needed to be done in the times we were in, and he just very confidently felt like he was one that needed to step up and take the reins,” said his father, Brian Hyde, to the Honolulu Advertiser, a newspaper that covers his son’s Army base in Hawaii.
Hyde is West Point’s 68th graduate to be killed in support of the War on Terror. The first casualty of the class of 2007 was Second Lt. Michael Girdano, 23, of Apollo, Pa., who died in Afghanistan in August 2008, after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.
A memorial service for Hyde will be held in Iraq this week. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Photo: Daniel Hyde's family outside their Modesto home Sunday: Andrea Hyde, sister; Brian Hyde, father; and Glenda Hyde, mother.
==Another news article==
MODESTO, CA - Based on his past, it's safe to assume good things would have been in Daniel Hyde's future. The Downey High Student Body President with perfect grades graduated from West Point and became a lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
But Hyde's life ended this weekend when his military vehicle was hit by an explosive device.
His mother said the hard part is realizing the death happened in a war that's seemingly becoming less dangerous.
"He always talked about it being peaceful, and he told me not to worry. If we would go five days without hearing, I'd email him and make him tell me he's ok. He'd get back and say 'I'm sorry mom, it's fine and quiet,' " said Glenda Hyde.
His parents were in remarkably good spirits Monday as they took many phone calls and visitors into their Modesto home. Their faith clearly played a big role as they face the tragic loss.
"I know he's in a safe place now. I have a lot of peace in that. He absolutely served the Lord before everybody else. He's in heaven and he's ok," said his mother.
Daniel Hyde picked the military for a career, after scoring well on aptitude tests in high school and being recruited by all the academies.
Photo: Raymond Gonzales Gonzales - Daniel Hyde played basketball for Downey High School in 2003. Provided by Thomas Downey High School. Taken by Raymond Gonzales in 2003.
His parents said with a chuckle he wanted to own his own barber shop after leaving the Army. It's a dream that won't be realized, but his parents said what he did accomplish was reason enough to be grateful.
His mother said, "He wouldn't want you to be sad. He'd want us celebrating the 24 years he had with us."
==Another news story==
The Modesto Bee -- A young Modesto man who twice served as the student body president at Downey High and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., died in Iraq on Saturday.
Lt. Daniel Hyde was 24. He is the first Modesto soldier killed in Iraq since 2007.
Hyde was stationed in Samarra, Iraq, his family said. He had been deployed in October as an Airborne Ranger-qualified infantry officer with the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division.
Saturday afternoon, Hyde, a platoon leader, was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his Humvee, said his father, Brian Hyde, 49.
Three U.S. Army representatives visited the family's northeast Modesto home Saturday evening, his family said. Glenda Hyde, Daniel Hyde's mother, was home alone.
"They knocked kind of ferociously," she said Sunday evening. "I was startled and I almost didn't answer it. Then I realized: Oh, this is what happens when something happens to your kid."
The men asked Hyde if there were any family members she could call to the home for support, deflecting her questions about why they were there. But eventually they told her the news.
Hyde, 50, said she was surprised, because her son had told her the situation in Samarra was "fairly quiet."
"He always felt like he wasn't doing enough," she said.
Brian Hyde was in Sacramento at a conference when his father called him with news of Daniel's death. Someone at the conference drove him to Modesto on Saturday night. His daughter, Andrea, 21, drove to Modesto from San Francisco.
Hyde said he was expecting a few family members but was surprised to find dozens of friends and family at his home. They stayed until 2 a.m. offering support, condolences and stories.
"At school he was really popular," said friend Adam Aguilera, 23, who now lives in Washington state. "He had the athletics and the intelligence, but he was just so good toward people. Some people can have all that talent and just look down on people, but I never heard him say anything bad about anybody in our class. He just had a kindness about him."
Sunday morning, Hyde's church pastor played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in place of the service's opening hymn and project- ed a photograph of Daniel Hyde onto screens around the chancel.
Hyde played football, basketball and golf in high school, and was a member of at least two academic honor societies, maintaining a 4.20 GPA. He volunteered at Delta Blood Bank and worked at a golf course.
A high school teammate shared one story about how, coming into a huddle even 30 to 40 points behind, "Daniel would say, 'We can still get back into it!' " Brian Hyde said. "He was never a 'give up' type."
Frank Bispo was head football coach at Downey for 10 years. He coached Hyde, a quarterback, for two of those years.
"You don't coach too many kids like him. He was a good athlete, a good student, a good person. He had it all," Bispo said. "I have four daughters and there's very few young men I would want to marry them. But he's that kind of man."
Bispo said Sunday he had received many calls from former players wanting to know if the rumors of Hyde's death were true.
"He was a leader and it just goes with the territory that he had teammates that really cared about him," Bispo said. "He never had a bad moment, even through competition. He never displayed any kind of negative attribute ever."
He graduated from Downey in 2003 and West Point in 2007.
In 2002, Daniel Hyde was featured in The Bee's Teen Hall of Fame.
He was believed to be Downey's first two-term student body president. He said his parents were his biggest influence; that his biggest dislike was people who were undisciplined; and that his advice to kids was "not to accept mediocrity in any aspect of your life."
"I just have a desire to be a leader," Hyde told The Bee. "I really couldn't stand it to watch someone else do the job. It's hard for me not to be the one person people ask for help and depend on."
==Another news story==
Honolulu Star-Bulletin - A Schofield Barracks lieutenant killed in Iraq won praise from his commanders and fellow soldiers yesterday as an officer destined for greatness.
1st Lt. Daniel B. Hyde, 24, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade Saturday while on patrol in Iraq. He was remembered by members of his 25th Infantry Division unit at a service yesterday at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora in Tikrit.
Hyde, of Modesto, Calif., was serving his first combat deployment after graduating from West Point in 2007. He was serving as a platoon leader assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team's 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment.
While at West Point he served as one of four cadet regimental commanders and graduated 23rd in his class.
At the memorial service, Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen, the commander of the 25th Division who also was superintendent at West Point when Hyde was a student there, said: "Dan was a great soldier, leader and human being, a natural leader who had an immediate and profound impact on everyone he came in contact with. One of the top cadets in his entire class, he was known and respected by every cadet, and the entire staff and faculty at West Point.
"In his unit, he already asserted himself as one of the top lieutenants. He loved his soldiers and they knew it. He was one of those officers who you knew was destined for greatness. He lived and exemplified in every way the values of West Point: duty, honor, country."
Hyde's battalion commander, Lt. Col. Samuel Whitehurst, recalled telling Hyde when he joined the Cacti Battalion that there was a waiting list for the position of platoon leader.
"I expected him to be disappointed - all lieutenants want to be platoon leaders, and I expected Dan to be no different - but Dan was different," Whitehurst added. "That was the first time I was introduced to Dan's customary smile as he shrugged off the initial disappointment and said, 'Sir, I'm ready to serve wherever you need me.' Right then I knew that Dan was a special person and a special man."
First Lt. Daniel Hwang, who met Hyde when they were both cadets at West Point, said he knew when he first met him that "he was meant for greatness."
Fellow platoon leader 1st Lt. Ronald Colwell added that Hyde "always wants to shoulder a little bit more than his share of burdens, if it meant the other guy would get some relief. He embodies the idea that attitude is the difference between adversity and adventure - for Dan everything is an adventure."
==Another news story==
WEST POINT — A memorial service was held in Iraq this week to honor a 2007 graduate from the U.S. Military Academy.
First Lt. Daniel B. Hyde, 24, of Modesto, Calif., died in Iraq on Saturday, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. He was mortally wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle in Tikrit, a town along the Tigris River, northwest of Baghdad.
In an e-mail from Iraq on Tuesday, his division mentor and former commandant at West Point, Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen, said news of Hyde’s death “ripped” his heart out. “Dan was intelligent, personal, and physically and mentally courageous,” Caslen said. “He loved his Soldiers and they knew it. He was one of the most respected leaders in that entire command.”
For the 4,400 cadets in training at West Point, a classmate’s death brings brevity to their collegiate lives. Some are trying to attend his funeral in lieu of spring break plans.
Hyde’s death “suddenly made the prospect of going to war very real,” wrote cadet Ty Volkman, in a mass e-mail to his regiment this week. “Lt. Hyde was a phenomenal cadet, officer, and man. He was charismatic, caring, and very competent.”
Hyde was a stand-out engineering student at West Point. He graduated near the top of his class and served as a regimental commander for the Corps of Cadets. He went on to earn his Ranger tab and airborne qualification.
He deployed in October and was serving as a platoon leader assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team in the 25th Infantry Division out of Hawaii.
Hyde is West Point’s 68th graduate killed in support of the War on Terror. The first casualty in the class of 2007 was Second Lt. Michael Girdano, 23, of Apollo, Pa., who died in Afghanistan in August 2008, after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.
This latest casualty, Volkman told fellow cadets, “allows each and every one of us to remember why it was that we decided to pick the harder path. We chose to protect this nation and knock on the doors of our enemies, knowing full well that not all of us might return.”
Photo: Maj. General Robert Caslen pays his respects to First Lt. Daniel Hyde, 24, of Modesto, Calif. Hyde was a 2007 graduate of the U.S. Military at West Point. Caslen served as West Point's Commandant of Cadets during Hyde's tenure and as the young officer's mentor in Iraq.
