WASHINGTON, Conn. — As you drive down the long, winding driveway past Sue and Ray Reich’s immaculate stone home, built in 1938, you make your way to a small garage.
A most special flag hangs from the front of that garage, the Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), the 160th. This is the flag of the Night Stalkers, the fastest deployable aviation Task Force in the world.
Maj. Stephen Reich, Sue and Ray’s son, embodied everything that Army unit stands for, and he is not forgotten.
He is remembered at West Point, where he graduated 20 years ago after becoming one of the best pitchers the program ever produced. He pitched for Team USA in 1993 in the Pan Am Games and the World University Games. He was the flag-bearer for the United States delegation to those games. He went on to pitch briefly in the Orioles system, but knew he had a much different, and higher calling — a Night Stalker, a helicopter pilot. He was awarded three Bronze Stars.
The creed of the 160th is this: “When the impossible has been accomplished the only reward is another mission that no one else will try.’’ These are words Stephen Reich lived by.
On Jan. 10, Mark Wahlberg’s new film, “Lone Survivor,” the incredible story of Navy SEAL team member Marcus Luttrell, opens.
It was Maj. Reich who was the commander of the mission that saw his eight-member SOAR team fly into eastern Afghanistan to rescue Luttrell’s ill-fated Operation Redwing SEAL team on June 28, 2005. Reich volunteered for the mission.
The MH-47 Delta Chinook helicopter was attempting to insert an eight-man SEAL team, hovering about 50 feet above the ground when an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) took down the chopper — all 16 men on board were killed.
Stephen Reich’s life, though, is about much more than a brief mention in Luttrell’s book or a heartbreaking scene in the movie. His life continues to make an impact every day.
“Stephen excelled in high school, and we are a baseball town,’’ Mark Lyon, Washington’s First Selectman, told The Post at Bryan Memorial Town Hall, a building that looks like it came right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. “This is a small town, we were so proud of Stephen in everything that he did, and then going on to West Point and a great military career. Stephen meant so much to us and still means so much to us, and that’s what keeps that continuity going in citizenship awards and everything else.’’
Mark Lyon added these powerful words: “Stephen was our sacrifice.’’
The 160th knows about sacrifice. The creed ends with these words: “I serve with the memory and pride of those who have gone before me for they love to fight, fought to win and would rather die than quit.’’
“That was Stephen, he would never quit, and he would never talk about all his missions, we’re just starting to piece together things after nine years,’’ said Sue Reich, a retired emergency-room nurse explained in the living room of their warm and inviting home, where they raised three children — Stephen and his two sisters, Megan and AnnMarie.
In her hands, she held a portrait of Stephen. Ray sat across from her on the couch. Occasionally he would look up proudly at the top of the bookcase to the model MH-47 Delta Chinook that Stephen presented his parents. Sue and Ray never have read Luttrell’s 2007 book, and they do not plan to see the movie.
Ray taught physics and calculus at The Gunnery, a prestigious prep school here. He also was an assistant baseball coach at Shepaug Valley High and was there when Stephen was star of the team, along with Scott Werkhoven, whose father was the head coach. Scott is now the head coach.
“Stephen just made people better,’’ Scott Werkhoven said. “He was about doing it the right way all the time.’’
Ray organizes the town’s spectacular fireworks show every Fourth of July, including the display in 2005, a week after Stephen died.
Stephen was just 34 when he was killed. He was so highly respected that two Chinooks came to town and did a flyover that day just before the fireworks. At Fort Campbell in Kentucky, one of the buildings, “Reich Hall’’ has been named after Stephen. There are memorials to Stephen and the crew in Savannah, Ga., and St. Augustine, Fla. He is remembered fondly in his hometown, where two citizenship awards are given every year in his honor. At least four of his military brothers have named children in his honor.
“Stephen always wanted to be underscored,’’ Sue said. “He never talked about his baseball career. In his last game at West Point he needed five strikeouts to set the school’s all-time record. He struck out 17.
Reich never lost to Navy or Air Force.
“Even now he would not want to be the center of attention, and upstage any the men that were part of that final mission,’’ Sue said. “They all have amazing stories to tell. I know their moms as well, and their loss was as great as anybody’s.’’
Noted Ray Reich about the 160th, “That is still a closed community, and Stephen was so pleased to be chosen. From what we hear Stephen was moving very rapidly through the 160th, which is the only special operations regiment that flies night time missions.’’
If it’s SEALs, Rangers, CIA or Delta Force, any Special Ops, the Night Stalkers are involved. They were in the middle of bringing down Osama Bin Laden. You can only imagine the number of missions Reich flew since 9/11 during his four tours.
“His sisters said this probably could have happened any one of dozens of times,’’ Sue explained. “After the memorial service in Savannah, Stephen’s First Sergeant said to me, ‘You know, I would have followed your son into battle anywhere.’
“To me that was the most honorable thing you could say about my son.’’
Stephen Reich grew up a Mets fan and even named his dog Mookie. He is in the Hall of Fame at West Point, the players wear his number on their sleeve, the team room is in tribute to him.
“To go from West Point and then to lose your life in combat, this was the real deal, and that resonates with the kids a lot,’’ his father explained.
Stephen’s ashes were spread at Steep Rock, a nature preserve in town.
“When he would come home on deployment, he would hike in Steep Rock and just unwind,’’ Sue said.
A memorial there includes a stone bench, part of the bench comes from the Reich home, and a new bridge, dedicated in Stephen’s honor.
“He was a bridge. He brought people together,’’ Ray said, his eyes filled with tears. “It’s important to know that Stephen is basically a small-town boy, and so many of the nice things that have happened here is because everybody knows him. That’s why it was so important to recognize someone for a citizenship award.’’
“That’s the thing that keeps us going,’’ Sue said through her own tears. “It seems so important to people that his memory be kept alive. People came to us, we didn’t reach out to anybody and say, ‘Dedicate a building or a hanger or a bridge or an award,’ people came to us and wanted to do this. Stephen loved his men, loved his town and loved his country. I think that’s why all these guys do what they do.
“Stephen loved the 160th and so many of the men still stay in touch with us,’’ Sue added. “We lost Stephen but we gained so many wonderful young men in our lives. They’re a brotherhood. They know that their family could be our family so they are so supportive.’’
Like Maj. Stephen Reich, they will never quit. They are Night Stalkers.