The Dodgers Help Us Honor The Legacy Of A Fallen Army Warrior
My Dad has now been on the road honoring heroes since April 2nd, 2015. He began our Battlefields To Ballfields mission in Chicago & has hosted over 150 warriors at 45 professional sporting events in the past 44 days!
Needless to say, he is exhausted, but nothing will stop him from continuing our mission in the city of Angels honoring the legacy of one at the Dodgers game today.
We are honored to be hosting surviving family members of Army Sgt Dwight Burn today at the Dodgers game in his honor. Dwight made the ultimate sacrifice when a helicopter crashed during a training mission.
ARMY SGT DWIGHT BURN
Dwight lived in his native Belize before his family moved to Barstow, CA when he was four years old. He graduated from Barstow High School in 2005 and began taking business courses at Barstow Community College. He enlisted in the Army in May 2010 as a CH-47 helicopter mechanic.
After graduating Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC, in July of 2010, Dwight attended Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Eustis, Virginia. He graduated AIT in December 2010 as a CH-47 Repairer and Maintainer, and received the coveted Aviator Basic Crewman Badge. He quickly progressed to a fully qualified crew chief and deployed to Afghanistan from September 2011 to September 2012. During that time, he accumulated over 600 combat flight hours. After redeployment, Dwight rapidly achieved his goal of becoming a CH-47 Flight Engineer and was promoted to Sergeant on November 1, 2013.
Dwight’s former wife, Cintia Vasquez, remembers that Dwight liked to make people smile and he could light up a room with how funny he was. Dwight and Cintia have two daughters, Violet and Vivian. “He was a great father,” Cintia said. “Anyone who came in, he showed them the pictures of his two daughters in his wallet. They were his pride and joy. Dwight was a great man and the best father my daughters could have asked for.”
Dwight’s awards and decorations include the Meritorious Unit Citation, Air Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ribbon, NATO Medal, and the Certificate of Achievement.
He always seemed to like the military. The first thing he did when he got his green card was join the military. He was fascinated with the Army. Dwight made the ultimate sacrifice when a helicopter that he was aboard, serving as crew chief, crashed while on a training exercise near Orogrande, NM in May of 2014. He was assigned to the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC
Operation Warrior Wishes would like to thank the Los Angeles Dodgers for providing tickets to the game and helping us make the experience special by honoring SGT Burn on the jumbotron between innings. We would also like to thank New Era for Providing Dodgers Caps for the family.
My Dad will be on an overnight bus from LA to San Francisco where he will immediately jump on the “BART” Train to Oakland to make Warrior Wishes come true at the A’s game tomorrow
