Memorial for Chief Warrant Officer Alexander Moore Bayer
On May 25th, 2010 Chief Warrant Officer Alexander Moore Bayer died after a three-year long battle against cancer. He was serving as an Apache helicopter pilot in the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division, Ft Campbell, Kentucky.
Alex was born on November 27, 1981 and baptized at St. Jane Frances De Chantal Roman Catholic Church. He grew up in Potomac, Maryland where his early passions in life were shaped by his summers in Nantucket and weekend winter ski trips to the mountains of West Virginia. He became an avid and accomplished fisherman and a powerful and versatile skier. He tackled every activity fearlessly and with complete abandonment. He loved life and he loved living it.
As with his father and grandfathers, Alex was drawn to the military and chose to attend Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia. He was a member of the School’s elite and highly honored Color Guard, and rose through the Corps of Cadets to become its Battalion Commander, the highest leadership position at the school. In spite of his ever increasing responsibilities, he fully participated in the Fishburne athletic program, lettering in at least 3 to 4 sports each year and earning many athletic awards including Most Valuable Player in soccer and basketball. The faculty at Fishburne cultivated his love of history, economics, and English while the military faculty honed his leadership skills. Seizing and excelling at every opportunity during his four years at Fishburne, he graduated with a strong commitment to further serve others, a keen understanding of the responsibilities of leadership, a deep appreciation for the opportunities he was afforded and a desire to live each day to the fullest.
Alex enlisted in the Army in 2005, attending Basic and Advanced Individual Training at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. He was selected for Warrant Officer School, and later Rotary Wing Flight Training, where his excellent performance enabled his choice of aircraft: the Apache Attack Helicopter. Before leaving Ft. Rucker, Alex attended the Survival Escape and Evasion School, one of the most physically demanding courses in the Army. Unknowingly, the cancer had begun and was blocking the blood flow in his heart, making it much more difficult for him to operate physically, yet he persevered and excelled.
He was commissioned as a Warrant Officer in 2006, and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. During his first week, all the seasoned pilots in his unit were required to take a mandatory written exam for flight re-certification. His commander thought it would be good for Alex to experience this very difficult test even though he had no preparation. To everyone’s amazement, Alex passed the test with the highest score, a performance for which he was later cited.
The following year while Alex was waiting for radiation treatment at Walter Reed Medical Hospital, he met a flight instructor from Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, who was also being treated for cancer. During their conversations, the flight instructor told Alex the story of a new Apache pilot at Ft. Campbell who out-performed even seasoned pilots on a written test hours after reporting to his unit. The instructor had often used this story to motivate his pilots to use every opportunity to study, even when out of the classroom. At the end of this story, Alex confessed he was in fact this “legendary” pilot but that in fact he never had opened the books before taking that test. They agreed to keep that “detail” a secret.
What wasn’t a secret was how much Alex loved the brief time he had flying with the 101st. He loved it all—the unit, his fellow soldiers and all the challenges of flying and combat tactics. He was anxious to complete his year’s chemotherapy and return to his unit in time to be deployed to Afghanistan. His return to the cockpit was terrific, all his skills were recovered and everything was on track for Afghanistan. It was not to be, as only days before deployment he learned that his cancer had returned and that his would be a far different fight.
For Alex, truly “…nothing in his life became him so much as his leaving it”. In this time he met and married Jennifer A. Schrader of Crestview, Florida, who was the love of his life and stood by him in every hour those long days and nights. Their time together was too short but their every moment was filled with a type of happiness that some never experience in a lifetime.
Throughout his struggle, Alex supported others in their battles at Walter Reed or in his hospitals in Boston. His many doctors and nurses were amazed by his grit and courage, but even that was not infinite. On May 25th Alex asked to go home and he, with his family, flew from Boston to the family summer home in Lewes, Delaware. There, at home and at peace and surrounded by those who loved him, he left this world. For his bereft family Juliet’s words apply best: “When he shall die take him and cut him out into stars and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”
Alexander Moore Bayer is survived by his wife Jennifer A. Schrader, his parents Michael J. Bayer and Dr. Barbara M. Bayer of Washington, D.C., his brother Andrew M. Bayer of Washington, D.C., and his grandparents, Mrs. Dorothy Bayer of St. Marys, Ohio and Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Moore of El Paso, Texas. He is also survived by many aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces.
Alex will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery following a Solemn Funeral Mass at the Old Post Chapel at 0830 hours July 13, 2010. The family asks that contributions in lieu of flowers be made to the Alexander Moore Bayer Scholarship Fund at Fishburne Military School P.O. Box 988, Waynesboro, Virginia 22980.
