This website is a memorial to the life of U.S. Army Cpl. Aaron D. Gautier
19, of Hampton, Virginia.
Aaron was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Washington and gave the ultimate sacrifice while protecting our freedom on May 17, 2007 in Baghdad of wounds sustained when his mounted patrol came in contact with enemy forces using small-arms fire and an improvised explosive device.
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it...
And you thought Jean-Claude Van Damme looked cool in "Universal Soldier"...
Love – Forgetting what little you might receive and REMEMBERING when another gives all….
Aaron’s slide at the National Weekend of Remembrance – Washington, DC – July 2010. This picture is a blurry, but I think it’s the clarity of where it was displayed that should be the focus (pun intended).
Aaron enlisted in the Army several months shy of his 18th birthday. He was shipped off to Iraq with the Washington-based 2nd Infantry Division.
At 19 years old, he had learned what many of us do not learn in an entire lifetime: How to live honorably and with courage...
The Patriot Guard Riders at Aaron's funeral - May, 2007
We miss the talks we used to have, We miss the voice we used to hear...
We miss hearing your crazy but cool stories, and above all these...
We just miss you!
"It requires more courage to dare to do right, than to fear to do wrong..."
- Abraham Lincoln
There is NOTHING in Heaven or on Earth as powerful as a Mom's love..
Aaron's mom, Tina, on Aaron's 22nd birthday - Jan 17th, 2010
There is no black-and-white situation. It's all part of life... The highs, lows, and in-between...
- Van Morrison
All men are created equal, then a very select few become heroes...
- Unknown
"These kids join to fight for The United States of America and all the patriotic terms... But they die for their friends next to them..." - John Phelps, Gold-Star father
The memorial in Iraq for Aaron and Pfc. Jonathan V. Hamm, who died the same day, also in Bahgdad
It's the heart afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance,
It's the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance...
It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give,
and the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live...
Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring
Becomes the Rose...
Aaron loved roller-coasters and the New York Yankees...
"Aaron was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, WA - But his true home was in Hampton Roads..." - Aaron's Gold Star mom, Tina
The term "Hampton Roads" is a centuries-old designation that originated when the region was a struggling English outpost nearly four hundred years ago. The name is believed to have originated from the combination of two separate words.
The word "Hampton" honors one of the founders of the Virginia Company of London and a great supporter of the colonization of Virginia, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. In the easternmost part of the new colony, downstream from Jamestown, the early administrative center was known as Elizabeth Cittie [sic], named for Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I, and formally designated by the Virginia Company in 1619. (The Elizabeth River was also named for the princess).
The town at the center of Elizabeth Cittie became known as simply "Hampton", and a nearby waterway was designated Hampton Creek (also known as Hampton River). The town (and later city) of Hampton was the county seat of Elizabeth City County for over 300 years, until they were politically consolidated into the current large independent city known as Hampton, Virginia in 1952. The City of Hampton thus became one of the large Seven Cities of Hampton Roads, of which four others also grew to the larger sizes by consolidating with neighboring jurisdictions such as counties and towns in the mid-twentieth century...



The love that once was born can not die. For it has become part of us, of our life.
Woven into the very texture of our being...



Aaron - 6 months old
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal...
The Honor and Remember flag pole, part of the Aaron Gautier Memorial currently being constructed at Aaron's family's home. Check back with us as more pictures are posted...
If 50 years from now you are a million miles away, and need the light of a special one to brighten up your day....
Just close your eyes and feel your heart and honestly believe... There's a piece of me inside your heart, and that piece will never leave...
- Anonymous
Aaron and his sister, Alexis
A baby boy is a blank check made payable to the human race...
- Barbara Christine Seifert
I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of them... but becoming them...
All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth...
Aaron and SSG Coady (his Drill Sergeant) on graduation day - Fort Benning, GA
Some choices we live not only once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives....
Transcript from the Nancy Grace show - 6/23/09