Death leaves a big void in small town of Wilbur

By Nicholas K. Geranios

Associated Press

SPOKANE — Flags were at half-staff at the tiny school in Wilbur on Thursday as residents remembered 21-year-old Marine Sgt. Nathan P. Hays, who died in a military plane crash in Pakistan.

Hays played offense and defense on the football team, and went back to the town of about 1,000 people after graduation in 1999 to talk with students about the Marine Corps.

"The camaraderie and small teamwork concept of the Marines appealed to him," recalled Bill Grigsby, who taught Hays at Wilbur High School and coached him for four years on the football team.

Grigsby said Hays loved the Marines.

"I talked to him before he went overseas. It was his job. He was excited about it. I think he understood what was involved," he said.

Hays was among seven Marines killed when their plane — a KC-130 used for in-flight refueling and hauling cargo — crashed into a mountain in Pakistan late Wednesday as it approached a military airfield.

Hays’ parents, James and Kim Hays, moved about a year ago to the Spokane area, 50 miles east of Wilbur.

James Hays is a Washington State Patrol trooper, and has not made a public statement on the death, said State Patrol Capt. Mike Dubee of Spokane.

The family also has a 23-year old son and a 19-year-old daughter, Dubee said.

All the approximately 250 children in the Wilbur school district attend school in the same building, and many of the students knew Hays, Grigsby said.

"There’s nothing planned at the school right now," Grigsby said. "We’re just trying to get through the day."

Hays was an Eagle Scout and a classic car buff. He played linebacker and tight end for the football team, and was a hard worker in the weight room, Grigsby said. He was a team captain and won all-league honors.

"It was more important that we did well as a unit than he did well as an individual," Grigsby recalled.

Chris Rettkowski, a friend and former classmate of Hays, and seven other friends of the dead Marine gathered in a small apartment Wednesday night in Spokane.

"With a guy like him, being such a strong guy and determined, he seems invincible," Rettkowski told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane. "If you ever met a guy who wasn’t afraid of anything, it was this guy."

Hays decided during his senior year to pursue a military career, friends said.

"He didn’t feel he was ready for college," Alyssa Erickson, one of 33 people in Hays’ graduating class, told the newspaper.

Wilbur High School principal Tom Johnson, who taught science and had Hays as a student, told the newspaper he returned to the wheat farming town a couple of times and appeared in uniform for speeches to students at the school.

"It was an honor to have known him as a student and as a Marine serving our country," Johnson said.

Hays, a flight mechanic, enjoyed working on cars and was in the process of restoring an orange Chevy Chevelle. He’d show off photos of his motorcycle to friends as well.

All the victims of the KC-130 crash were based at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. The crash was the worst U.S. casualty toll since the American forces began fighting in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon said there is no evidence that enemy fire downed the plane.

The Marines were part of the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352, whose history includes service in every major U.S. military action since World War II.