Cindy Fisher’s answering machine still has a message for her son, Bufford “Kenny” Van Slyke, that she recorded in case he calls from Iraq.
“Kenny, I just want you to know that I love you a bunch,” the message says.
Marine Pfc. Van Slyke, a former student in Oak Harbor schools, was killed by a sniper’s bullet Feb. 28 when he was at a checkpoint outside of Fallujah. He may be the first former Oak Harbor High School student to die in the war.
Van Slyke left behind a wife and a five-month-old son.
The 22-year-old marine went to school in Oak Harbor until his junior year, when his family moved to California and later to Michigan. Van Slyke attended Clover Valley Elementary, North Whidbey Middle School and Oak Harbor High School.
Tim O’Brien, children’s pastor for Oak Harbor’s Church of the Nazarene, remembers Van Slyke fondly as an easy-going “knucklehead” who played in youth football with his son Patrick. The two families were close and kept in touch over the years.
“Whether a nerd or a jock came along, Kenny could get along with anyone…” O’Brien recalls. “He worked hard and had a great attitude. He was happy to be part of the team and didn’t care if he wasn’t the superstar. It wasn’t important to him.”
His mother said Van Slyke’s infectious laugh and omnipresent smile earned him many friends in Oak Harbor. He stayed in touch with many of his school buddies and talked to them on a weekly basis.
Van Slyke was fun-loving and became proficient on a skateboard. Fisher said he also had a lifelong mischievous side.
“We joked when he was little that mud puddles came to him,” she said.
The family of seven — three boys, two girls — lived in the Park Acres neighborhood. The children made trails and had adventures in the woods.
Fisher said her son was sad to leave his friends in Oak Harbor when they moved, but he was excited by the adventure of travel.
In 2004, the family moved to Bay City, Mich., where Van Slyke met his wife Kortni Morse. Their son, Kaiden Kenneth Van Slyke, was 2 months old in December when Van Slyke was sent to Iraq.
A college fund has been set up for Kenny’s son Kaiden if anyone wishes to send a donation: Kaiden Kenneth VanSlyke College Fund, Chemical Bank branch, 333 E. Main St., Midland, MI, 48640.
Fisher said her son decided to join the Marines in order to make a better life for his family, but also out of a sense of duty and honor.
“Both my husband and I were in the Navy, so he knew what the military stood for,” Fisher said. “He joined the Marines because he wanted the best of the best.”
Van Slyke was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Saginaw, Mich., according to the Department of Defense.
As of Sunday, March 4, 2007, at least 3,173 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Kenny Van Slyke’s obituary can be found on page A-10 of today’s Whidbey News-Times.
