SPC Geoffrey A. Whitsitt 118th MP 503rd Battalion

Geoff was my first best friend. He was born when I was six years old and I'll never forget the first time holding my baby brother. As we grew up, we obviously had the sibling fights, but we always had each others backs. Geoff was a vivacious singer with a beautiful voice. He was selected to be a part of a children's choir in our home state of South Carolina, which was a huge accomplishment because the children's choir was almost impossible to get into!Our life paths went separate directions. I joined the Navy in 2005 and Geoff joined the Army, shortly after he graduated high school. He went to boot camp in Fort Leonard Wood and then MP school, followed by Airborne school in Fort Benning. I deployed for the fifth time to Bahrain and he went on his first deployment to Afghanistan.On January 13, 2010, I called home to talk with my wife. She was pregnant at the time with our first daughter. I immediately knew something was wrong when she answered. "Geoff is dead," is all she could say. "I am so sorry."At his funeral, it was not just a funeral with military honors and the pomp and circumstance. So many people shared their own stories about how Geoff had changed their lives. How he would tell jokes that would make your sides hurt from laughing. How he would break out into song while on the hikes through the Afghan mountains. How he'd take care of his fellow soldiers by sharing candy or his water. My three children will never know their Uncle Geoff this side of heaven, but my wife and I make sure that they know the kind of man he was. He was a man of honor and courage and integrity; compassion and grit and toughness. He loved God first, then family and finally country. And it was with that love he paid the ultimate sacrifice with his life.Geoff will always be my first best friend. And he will forever be my hero.-MN1(SW) Steven Whitsitt, USN Gold Star Brother