The Details: ‘Everyone’s Best Friend’ Stacey Left Lasting Legacy
November 10, 2016 | Football, General
"If you're reading this letter, then my time on this earth has come to an end. There is no easy way to explain the way that I feel, no words that can possibly ease the pain that I'm sure you are feeling. But if it is any help, know that I died doing what I believed in and, most importantly, what I wanted to be doing." – An excerpt from Sgt. William C. Stacey's In Case Of Death Letter
When Will Stacey was a child, he had a set of military history coloring books that covered everything from the Civil War to World War II. Thinking about those books years later his mother, Robin, started to laugh at how "tedious" she found the descriptions.
Each page had intricate details on the color of bullet casings and uniforms. Robin remembers these books well, because as a young child, "that's all he wanted to read."
By the time he finished middle school, he had read most of books written by military historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose.
A military mind from a young age, Stacey's path to the United States Marine Corps started early. The Marines were the "elite force" and he wanted to become a part of that.
"It was a genuine interest from as early as he began to be his own person," said Robin, a professor in Washington's history department.
He was a "team player" who could tell a story and have those listening "weeping with laughter." He was "everyone's best friend," a guy who took pride in bringing people together.
His passion for military history, his charisma and almost photographic memory for terrain and military artifacts made him the perfect match for the Marines.
And, by the time he was 23, he had been deployed five times. It was during that fifth, and final deployment, this one in Afghanistan, that Stacey was killed by an IED. It was Jan. 31, 2012. It was his mother's birthday.
"For so many years now, I have wanted to be a soldier and above that, a Marine. There are few things more important to me than that. The Marines are a brotherhood that has stood for 232 years. It is a brotherhood born out of struggle, sacrifice and success. And the price of success causes pain to so many. Over the years so many have died, just as I have."
When Washington takes the field Saturday, running back Myles Gaskin will wear a patch just under the Pac-12 emblem on his jersey with Stacey's name.
For Stacey's father, Bob, it is fitting that Gaskin will wear the patch that honors his son during Washington's Salute to Service.
"I think it's terrific of ICA (Department of Intercollegiate Athletics) to do this for the Husky veterans and I'm just really proud and honored that somebody like Myles Gaskin is going to wear his name, because from what I know about Myles Gaskin, he is a real team player," said Bob, the dean of Washington's College of Arts and Sciences. "He is a guy a lot like Will. He doesn't talk too much about what he contributed to the win, even though he's critical to just about every win the Huskies have.
"He talks about all the people around him who made that possible."
Stacey left such a profound impression on those around him there are 10 children who have been named after him. And, each time Robin learns of a new baby, she sends a Washington outfit.
Her son would have liked that. Although he never attended the university, he loved the Huskies. A talented baseball player growing up, he was a yearly participant in former coach Ken Knutson's camps. And, as he got older, his affinity for Washington's football program grew.
In fact, former Husky Jake Locker was in two of Robin's classes and, when he learned that Stacey was deployed, Locker sent a video with behind-the-scenes footage and a shirt to the Marine.
So, while Stacey wasn't one to draw attention to himself he would be touched by this weekend's tribute.
"He would have been thrilled," Bob said. "He would have been absolutely thrilled, right down to the shoes."
"Every Marine hopes that he will never have to make the ultimate sacrifice, but everyone is willing to. There is no Marine on this green earth I have ever met that would put his own safety above that of his loved ones. We do this for the ones we care about; we do this because we believe that the good of the masses is worth more than that of ourselves."
Stacey wasn't supposed to be on the front line during his final deployment, but he had helped train a new squad of Marines and, when he arrived in the Helmund province in Nowzad – a place he had been assigned on a previous deployment – he talked his way into an assignment shift.
He had made the squad the best in the battalion by never raising his voice.
"If he was not happy with their performance, all he had to say was, 'Come on first squad, we're better than this,'" Bob said
Stacey was proud of his guys. He wanted to be with his guys. So he was on the front line with his guys.
The Taliban had sent in new recruits. Stacey's battalion was assessing the situation.
"They drew up a plan that involved posting a group of marines on a hill," Bob said. "Will went up to check the ground for IEDs. He was quite good at finding IEDs before anyone else."
But he missed one. He was the only soldier in his squad killed during the deployment.
"Everybody came home," Bob said. "That's how Will would have wanted it. He had become a guy who could handle just about anything, but the one thing I don't know if he could have handled would have been if he had survived and lost one of his guys. I don't know how that would have gone."
There are no words to explain the grief that comes from losing a son, but "before he died he had found something he loved, was successful at and proud of himself for," Robin said. "You can go through 90 years of life and not find any of those things."
A regular at The Duchess Tavern, the bar becomes a place people gather to remember Stacey every year on Jan. 31 and order a "gazillion" Washington apples, his drink of choice.
While friends and family still mourn the loss, they celebrate his memory. And, on Saturday, the Huskies will pay tribute to a man who lived his life determined "to do something really hard," Robin said.
"The Marines were absolutely the best thing that ever happened to him," Bob said. "I hate like hell the way it ended, but there's nothing else about it I would change."
