BOSTON (AP) Army Staff Sgt. Christopher N. Piper was born
to protect, his sister said.
``My brother made everyone feel safe,'' Lisa Piper recalled
Friday, the day after her 43-year-old soldier brother died
of wounds he suffered during an attack on his convoy in
Afghanistan.
When their mother had pneumonia and her doctor ordered
bed rest, young Christopher made sure she got it.
``He was in the fifth grade, and he used to come home
from school and sit by the phone to answer any calls, so
our mother could get uninterrupted bed rest,'' Lisa Piper
said.
The Marblehead native suffered burns over 60 percent of
his body and seared lungs when the Humvee he was in was
struck by a home made bomb on June 3, his sister said.
Piper was pulled from the wreckage of his burning vehicle
by Afghan government soldiers he had been training, she
said. Two other American soldiers died in the explosion
and an Afghan interpreter was wounded in the attack near
Orgun in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border,
according to the Pentagon, which also announced his death
on Friday.
Doctors at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio,
where he was evacuated for treatment, thought Piper was
making progress until they discovered a previously unknown
abdominal injury on Wednesday and performed surgery, Lisa
Piper said. He was scheduled for further surgery on Thursday,
but died before doctors could operate.
Piper is the second Massachusetts soldier to die as a
result of combat in Afghanistan this month. Army National
Guard Spc. Michael J. Kelley of Scituate died June 8 during
a mortar attack on his base. At least six Massachusetts
residents have died in Afghanistan during the war on terror.
Piper was captain of the football team and also played
baseball at Marblehead High School, graduating in 1980.
He joined the Marine Corps on his 18th birthday, without
telling his parents, his sister said.
He served in the Marines for six years, before rejoining
civilian life. But Piper was born to be a soldier and itched
to get back in the military, his sister said. So he joined
the Army and was most recently with 1st Battalion, 7th
Special Forces Group based at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Military service was a tradition in the Piper family.
Piper's grandfather, Ernest W. Piper, served in the Navy
in World War II in the South Pacific. Christopher Piper
``worshipped'' his grandfather, his sister said.
His military service took him to some of the world's most
dangerous places, including Beirut in the early 1980s.
Since becoming a Green Beret, Piper had served in Iraq
as well as Afghanistan, earning a Bronze Star with Valor
during a combat mission in March 2003, his sister said.
Piper distinguished himself no matter where he served,
his sister said. ``He had so many medals I stopped counting,''
she said.
She also remembered him as a great father, with a ``tremendous''
sense of humor.
Piper also is survived by his wife, Connie Morales; two
children from a previous marriage, Dierdre, 13, and Christopher,
12; his father, Ernest W. Piper Jr.; and a brother, Ernest
W. Piper III of Alaska. His mother, Helen E. Piper, died
in 2003.
Memorial and funeral arrangements are still pending, but
Piper will be buried in the military section of Waterside
Cemetery in Marblehead, his sister said.
