Corry Tyler remembered

Army Capt. Corry Tyler, a former Woodbine resident, was among the 14 U.S. Army soldiers killed Wednesday when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq.

The Rev. William Warnock, pastor of Woodbine United Methodist Church, said an Army chaplain went to the home of Tyler's mother, Jennifer Tyler, about noon Wednesday and told her that her son had been killed.

Pentagon officials said Thursday that the Black Hawk, one of two flying in a night operation, likely crashed because of mechanical failure rather than enemy fire.

Jennifer Tyler was devastated by the loss coming after the death of her husband, Terry Tyler, about a year ago, Warnock said.

"It's pretty sad," he said.

As an only son, Corry Tyler could have declined what was his third deployment to Iraq, but he went anyway, Warnock said.

Tyler, 29, graduated from Camden County High School in 1995 and left for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point that summer, said Jeffrey Pace, his classmate. The two men met in 1989 after Tyler's father retired from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in Atlanta and moved his family to his native Woodbine.

"We've been best friends ever since. ... He loved his God, and he loved his family more than anything else," Pace said.

Tyler was with the 4th Squadron of the 6th Air Cavalry, Pace said. The squadron is based at Fort Lewis, Wash.

When his father died about a year ago, Tyler was in Iraq, Pace said.

"He got home, and he was strong for his mother," Pace said.

Asked if Tyler had always aspired to be in the Army, Pace said, "In my heart of hearts, I believe he did it because his daddy was in the military."

Pace said he learned of the crash of the Black Hawk after getting off work Wednesday morning at a Brunswick chemical plant, and that his worst fears were later confirmed.

"You always get a lump in your throat," he said of hearing such news. "You ask, 'Is it him? Is it him?' Something didn't feel right."

Tyler hoped to go to medical school and become an Army physician. He was to have heard soon if he had been accepted.

In addition to his mother and adopted brothers, Tyler is survived by his wife, Kathy, and three children in Washington state. Jennifer Tyler was to have left Thursday for Washington to be with her son's immediate family, Warnock said.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete Friday, but Tyler will be buried in Atlanta next to his father, whom he revered, Warnock said.

"His daddy and his mama were so proud, so proud," Warnock said.

Pace said he, too, is proud of his best friend and grateful for his service.

"He died giving me the right to stand on my front porch and to do whatever I want to do in this country," he said.

From the Savannah Morning News

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Corry P. Tyler dies 'of injuries suffered when his helicopter crashed'