Before he deployed to Afghanistan on Feb. 11, Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar of the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group had a talk with his stepdaughter, Octavia Osborne.
The Green Beret asked the 17-year-old, whom he had raised since she was 3, to look after her mother and two younger siblings. There was one more thing, too.
“He told me he’d be back in time for my graduation from Niceville High School,” Osborne said with a slight smile. “He promised.”
Sadly, that was one promise De Alencar couldn’t keep.
On April 8, De Alencar was killed in action in Nangarhar Province. He was 37.[…]
Not long after De Alencar’s death, a member of an Army care team contacted Natasha to ask about Octavia’s graduation ceremony.
“They asked me if I would ask the school administration if there would be enough room for some of the Green Berets from the 7th Group to attend,” Natasha recalled. “I asked how many, and he said ‘about 80.’ I was like, ’80? Really?’ ”
Octavia had heard that some of her dad’s brothers-in-arms planned to attend her graduation ceremony May 25, but the reality of what that meant didn’t really sink in at first.
“It dawned on me here and there that they were going to be there, but it didn’t really hit me until I got to the graduation and saw all those men sitting there in the stands,” she said.
The contingent from the 7th Group included not only the Green Berets in their dress uniforms, but many of their spouses and children as well. When Natasha and her mother, Yolanda Thornton, arrived at the stadium, Octavia’s special cheering section was already in place.
“They were saving seats for us!” Natasha said, her voice still filled with amazement at the memory. “I was overwhelmed. Everyone who was there had taken time out of their busy lives because they knew we had that void we were missing. They just wanted to let us know that they had our back.”
HT: TAH