Medic is among 5 soldiers killed by a suicide truck bomber in Iraq
Shortly after he joined the Army last spring, Bryce Gautier stopped by the pool at Rancho Alamitos High School in Garden Grove.
He wanted to let Matt Lambert, who had coached him for three years, know that he had enlisted, a decision he made about the time of his father’s death on April 10, 2008.
“All of a sudden, he started evaluating things and starting to figure things out,” Lambert said. “He had a friend that was going into the military and it made sense.”
A member of the swim and water polo teams throughout high school, Gautier then jumped into the pool to help the polo team practice.
“He was a solid swimmer,” Lambert said. “But his work ethic and personality was what drew people to him.”
Gautier, a private first class, was killed in Iraq on April 10, the anniversary of his father’s death. He and four other soldiers assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Ft. Carson, Colo., died when a suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives at the entrance to a police headquarters in Mosul, north of Baghdad.
The 22-year-old Cypress resident is survived by his mother, Heidi Frankel; a brother, Evan; and his twin sister, Courtney Tewes.
“Bryce was one of those kids that had so much to give to the world, it’s just sad,” his coach said. “Definitely robbing the world of something special.”
In a message sent via MySpace to former swimming teammate Naomi Dang a little more than a month before he was killed, Gautier wrote that he was a medic in the Army and hoped one day to find a job as a nurse. In the March 5 message, Gautier made loose plans with Dang to get together when he returned home around August.
In high school, swimming was a big part of Gautier’s life, his coach and teammates said. They remembered him as a swimmer who worked hard and was dedicated to helping the team.
“He just had the natural leadership quality,” Lambert said. “He was the guy you never missed and he was there every day.”
When Gautier joined the water polo team in his freshman year, Kavi Vyas was a junior and the two played similar positions in the water. Although Gautier didn’t seem to know much about the sport at the time, he was a “really eager kid” and improved a lot in his first season, Vyas said.
“When he came on the team, he didn’t seem like the natural athlete, but he worked really hard,” Vyas said. “Bryce wanted to improve; he always wanted to improve.”
Vyas lost touch with Gautier when he graduated and went to Stanford University. He found out about his friend’s death from the Facebook page of another former teammate who still lives in Orange County.
Gautier worked hard during practices, swim meets and water polo games, but also was known for keeping things light, often with a running commentary, Lambert said. And Vyas said Gautier could dish it out just as well as he could take it.
But Lambert said Gautier’s teasing was never done to put others down.
“He’d just also be joking around,” he said. “Not joking around in a way that gets under a coach’s skin, just working hard and making sure that people are having fun.”
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