York Town News
Saying goodbye to Kyle
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Army Spc. Kyle A. Little
YORK - Twenty years.
Twenty years was all the time Mike Little would have with his first-born child, Kyle, who was killed last week while serving in Iraq.
"He loved, loved, loved what he was doing. He really did find a niche in the Army. They were his extended family," Mike said.
When he signed on for his second tour of duty, he chose a job escorting high-ranking officials visiting the area.
"He was right in the heart of the action," Mike said.
It was late last Tuesday afternoon, May 8, when Mike returned to his North Berwick home from his job with the York School Department. Mike had just made himself a cup of coffee when he saw a van driving slowly along his dead-end road.
"My first thought was that they were coming to talk to my oldest daughter," Mike said, explaining Kyle's sister is a senior at Noble High School.
Mike said he was prepared to tell the Army officers that his daughter was not interested in pursuing a career in the military when they asked, "Do you have a son, Kyle A. Little?"
"I said yes. ... From then on everything just went kind of slow motion," Mike recounted.
He was told, then, that 20-year-old Kyle had been killed in action that morning.
"Every day you worry about your kids. That's what parents do," Mike said. "Now I won't worry about him anymore, but I will spend the rest of my life thinking of him."
Mike described meeting Kyle's new wife, Tiffany, over the Christmas holiday, and of the last correspondence he received from Kyle - an e-mail.
In that message, Kyle told his father that he was preparing to return to Iraq, and that he had just learned from Tiffany, "that we'll be calling you grand-dad soon. ... He didn't say he was going to be a father. He said he'd be calling me grand-dad."
Kyle will be buried in West Boylston, Mass., where his mother lives, on Friday, following a wake in Worcester on Thursday.
While there, Mike said he visited his mother-in-law's grave for the first time since she passed away seven years ago.
"Walking out, I tripped on a marker stone ... It said, ‘Life doesn't end. It just changes.' That hit me like a ton of bricks," Mike said. "Kyle is not here physically, though he is here emotionally. But I will also have a grandchild. I will have the opportunity to see bits and pieces of Kyle in my grandchild, that my family will have a new branch."
And, Mike said, through their shared grief he is getting to know his new daughter-in-law.
"She's a strong girl. She's determined. She's going to make this work," he said of Tiffany, a young woman from Georgia who his son met through his enlistment in the Army. "She says she's having a ‘little" Little. She just misses him so much. And I'm sure he misses her, too - but he is with her. He's here with all of us. He's given us such a gift."
Kyle was killed with Sgt. Blake Stephens, 25, a soldier from Idaho who was in the same platoon, Mike said, adding he has since called Idaho and spoken with his mother.
"His mom and dad feel the exact same way that I do," he said, quoting something Blake's mother told him. "'They're going off to a bigger and better place, and they're going to go with wings.' That was just one of the sweetest things I've ever heard."
Mike said he hopes people understand that his son chose to go to Iraq, that he was doing what he believed was right.
"Right or wrong, they're over there, and you have to support them. Everybody's there because they were trained to do what they are doing," he said. "He was most, most comfortable in the Army. He wasn't trying to be Rambo; he felt it was the right thing to do. He was over there to help make things better."
Both Mike and Kyle's stepmother, Katrina, work for the York Schools, and Mike said the outpouring of support has been nothing short of overwhelming.
"I have gotten two giant poster-board cards that are filled with signatures from all the students," Mike said. "I thank everybody who has offered to help. ... I just want to repay everyone with the support and the love that I got from everyone."
Mike is also known throughout the area as DJ Side Trax, who is beloved in York for spinning the favorite tunes during the annual Halloween Hop sponsored by York Parks and Recreation.
"The school people of York, and even people who don't know me that well, but just know me from disc-jockeying and being about town, have been absolutely incredible," Little said. "The support, the outreach, the cards and the letters, the prayers. It's incredible. It's absolutely incredible. It's York. It's North Berwick. It's Kittery. What's keeping me up when I start to break down is that I have so many people who are thinking of Kyle, that I can just regroup and stay headstrong, at least until through the end of the week."
Gov. John Baldacci has ordered that flags be flown at half-staff when Little's funeral is held on Friday.
"We have lost another brave young man," Baldacci said last week. "Spc. Little's death is a terrible reminder of the horrors of war. He died while serving his country and deserves the honor and respect of a grateful state and country. His family is in all of our hearts and prayers."
Mike said it is impossible to think of Kyle without thinking of his absolute favorite pastime.
"Kyle ate, slept and cried baseball. He loved the Boston Red Sox to no end. Through his whole youth, he was wherever Little League was," he said. "In memory of Kyle, just help your favorite Little League team. Just donate whatever you want."
Mike said he understands that people want to send flowers in memory of Kyle but, he said, "A baseball in a glove lasts a lot longer than a bouquet of flowers."
Speaking by phone from a visit to his father's home in Millbury, Mass., Monday evening, Mike described his trip to meet his son's plane, returning him home to be laid to rest. The plane was supposed to arrive in Connecticut, Mike said, but all that changed at the last minute, and Mike got the call just in time to keep him in Massachusetts to arrive at Worcester Airport to meet the military charter.
"I don't know why. I don't know what kind of miracle took place. I guess it's my son watching over me," he said. "I was right here in Millbury, a half-hour away. ... The plane came in at 3:24 p.m. and it was right on time."
Mike said he waited with his wife and their two daughters and his ex-wife, Kyle's mother Shelly Smith, and her son and daughter, as the honor guard escorted Kyle's casket from the plane to the hearse. Among them was Mike's father, a retired member of the Coast Guard.
"All I wanted to do through this whole ordeal I did today," Mike said, his voice breaking. "I got to put my hand on my son's casket and feel him for the last time."
