Remembering Bill Hasenflu
Born on September 29th, 1969 in Butler, Pennsylvania and having grown up in the nearby city of Meadville, Bill Hasenflu enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17—while still in high school--in a bid to travel and see the world. From there, he carried on to serve in the Naval Reserves, for a total of nine years of Navy service.
Hasenflu adopted Bradenton as his hometown toward the end of his Naval career, working at his father’s antifreeze recycling business. He also spent his time volunteering at local veterans centers, helping his mother at the daycare center she operated, and working as an instructor of both martial arts and Red Cross classes. He liked the beach and going out on the water—he often spent time with his family there, including his wife and three daughters. Hasenflu was also an amateur writer and sketch artist, and was working on a science fiction book at the time of his death.
AUDIO: Bill's life in Bradenton (Earl Hasenflu)
Described by his family as a person who always sought to help others no matter the cost, Hasenflu was moved by the events of 9/11 and enlisted in the Army in 2001, becoming a cavalry scout. He hoped to make a career out of military service: to earn a retirement pension to support his family, a feat which requires 20 total years in the armed forces.
AUDIO: Remembering Bill (Earl Hasenflu)
After serving multiple tours of duty in Iraq, Hasenflu deployed to Afghanistan in 2007 with the 4th Brigade Combat Team in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the long fight to displace the fundamentalist Taliban from the region. On September 28th, Staff Sergeant Hasenflu was detaining suspected militants at a police station in the Afghan city of Gardez when an Afghan policeman turned on coalition forces and ambushed Hasenflu’s unit, killing Hasenflu and wounding three other U.S. soldiers, one of the detainees, and an Afghan interpreter working with the Americans.
Hasenflu pushed a younger soldier who was doing paperwork out of the way, saving that soldier’s life but being mortally wounded himself by five of the rogue policeman’s gunshots. He was thirty-eight years old, and died just one day before his thirty-ninth birthday.
The two constants in Bill’s life were his love for his homeland and the love and commitment to his family, wife Judith, daughters Savannah, Veronica and Ashley. He will be forever missed, but never forgotten.
AUDIO: The incident at the Afghan police station (Earl Hasenflu)
Audio Transcripts