Soldier's discipline, service remembered (Lt Col Buehring, Ft McPherson, GA)

Friends of Lt. Col. Charles H. "Chad" Buehring on Monday reacted with sorrow to news of his death Sunday in Iraq.

Buehring The 40-year-old officer was fatally injured during a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad. Buehring and his family left Fayetteville this summer after he had been assigned to Fort Bragg for several years.

"It comes as quite a shock," said Vince Maffia, who knew Buehring through the Army and through Westminster Presbyterian Church at 2505 Village Drive. "It is an immeasurable loss, not only to the military but to his family and to our church family."

Barbara Nicholas, who knew the family through the church, said her 8-year-old son, Wesley, wrote a letter to her about Buehring that said: "We know he was the best Cub Scout leader ever."

"Chad was a person who was very disciplined," Nicholas said. "Underneath that discipline was a very soft twinkle."

She recalled that Buehring wore ties featuring characters from Dr. Seuss and Looney Tunes.

"Here's this guy we presumed to be so tough, but he had a love for children," she said. "He could come across as very disciplined, but just watch his boys look at him. There was just a great adoration. I hurt for them."

"He believed in what we are doing," she said. In Sunday school class, he "always reminded us of our freedom to sit in a room and have discussions."

Buehring was serving as the chief of the Military Information Support Team with the Coalition Provisional Authority in the Office of Strategic Communications at Iraq. The Pentagon listed his permanent assignment as Army Central Command Headquarters (Forward) at Fort McPherson, Ga.

"He was a man of honor who served his country and gave the ultimate sacrifice," said Maj. David Farlow, a public affairs officer with U.S. Central Command at Tampa, Fla.

Farlow was in Baghdad with Buehring for two weeks in September and early October.

"He was committed to doing what he could do with all the resources he controlled to bring about stabilization and advancement for the Iraqi people. He was working to inform the Iraqi people about the progress that was occurring under the Coalition Provisional Authority with the Iraqi Governing Council and ministries."

Buehring and Maffia were adult leaders with Cub Pack 709 and Boy Scout Troop 709 at the church.

"He is one of the adults through the scouting program and the youth in the church anyone could approach and talk to," Maffia said. "The youth and the adults alike would go to him for his advice.

"I can't think of a single person who would have anything negative to say about Chad. He was always the first one there when you needed a hand, to pitch in and help, and the last one there cleaning up."

Buehring served in the 3rd Special Forces Group and then the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg.

"We considered him to be somewhat untouchable," said Maffia, who is a staff sergeant. "I knew where he was and what he was doing. You never think it will happen to someone so close."

Maffia said he and Buehring became close friends after serving in the Army, the church and scouting.

"He was a great officer," Maffia said. "He was an excellent psy ops officer and planner. He was an excellent father, a great role model and a great friend."

from TheState.com (SC)

Slain colonel got news to Iraqi people

Fort Mill man says his brother, a Citadel graduate, loved his job

NICOLE MONROE BELL and CARRIE LEVINE
Knight Ridder Newspapers

When Lt. Col. Charles Buehring spoke to his brother by phone a little over a week ago, the colonel told him not to worry about his assignment in Iraq.

“He said the country was coming together, and that it wasn’t as bad as everyone thought it was,” said Buehring’s brother, 32-year-old Christopher Buehring of Fort Mill. “He loved what he was doing. He just had to be there. He just had to be there for us.”

Buehring joked that the only mortal danger he faced was getting a paper cut.

Charles Buehring of Fayetteville, N.C., a Citadel graduate known to friends and family as Chad, was killed Sunday in a rocket barrage against the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad. He was 40.

He and his wife, Alicia, have sons 9 and 12 years old.

In August, when their father was ill, Chad Buehring returned from Iraq to make arrangements with his family. Their father, of Tega Cay, passed away in September, a year after their mother died.

Christopher Buehring said even while his brother was briefly back home, he felt duty-bound to return to Iraq, where he was a specialist in psychological operations. He said he thinks his brother downplayed the danger in conversations with family both because he believed in his mission and because he didn’t want them to worry.

“He loved it over there,” Christopher Buehring said.

“When I heard the news (of Chad Buehring’s death), it just broke my heart.

“He was the best brother ever.”

Maj. Brian Cavanaugh, a friend and colleague, said Chad Buehring worked tirelessly to relay messages from the American government to the Iraqi people.

Chad Buehring was a veteran of the conflict in Somalia, according to Cavanaugh, and in Iraq, reported directly to Paul Bremer, Iraq’s civilian administrator.

Before and after Saddam Hussein’s government fell, Buehring was responsible for finding a way for messages from the American government to reach Iraqi civilians.

“You didn’t have the multitudes of displaced civilians in Iraq,” Cavanaugh said. “We were telling civilians that the safest thing for them to do was to stay home. That was due in large part to Chad’s efforts.”

Buehring was also responsible for finding a way to tell managers of Iraqi oil fields to disobey orders from their government to destroy the fields to keep them out of the hands of American invaders.

“He did things that were on the cutting edge of national security,” Cavanaugh said. “He was one of the good ones. He really was.”

He had two master’s degrees, one in international relations from Troy State’s satellite campus in Fayetteville, another in military operational art from a military school at Maxwell Air Force Base, Cavanaugh said. Cavanaugh said he believed his friend was close to getting a third degree, in education.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/7119803.htm

My thanks to AntiJen for this thread. Chad was my colleague and friend. He took over my job in Baghdad when I left in July, and was excited to be there.
As Brian was quoted in the press release, Chad was a hero and died a soldier serving us.
He was due home shortly and we never expected this kind of thing to happen.
He will be remembered by all of us who worked with him. He was Ranger, and Special Forces, and epitomized not only the warrior ethic, but was beloved as a husband and father.
He will be honored and remembered at the Citadel gathering this weekend for those alumni planning to attend. (we have two other Citadel grads in our section who will be there). He will be interred at Arlington with our many, many other fallen heroes.
Kit.

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