Air Force veteran of 3 tours honored

FALL RIVER, Mass., (WPRI) - Raymond Gamache cannot get the questions about his son’s sudden death out of his mind but he is turning anguish into focus to remember Tech Sergeant Jeremy Gamache with a scholarship.

“You're dodging this, dodging that and you never know if you're going to be walking down the street and a bomb goes off,” Gamache said, thinking back to how his son survived two tours in Iraq at the start of the conflict. “You're out there with guns firing all over the place.”

But it was on a seemingly safe drive with his wife of 5 months on Interstate 75 near Atlanta, Georgia where Gamache lost his life. He and his wife Amanda Jo died in a one car crash on May 6, 2011.

During his 2 tours in Iraq and another 2 year stint in Korea as a member of the Air Force, Gamache completed Special Forces missions he could not even talk about.

“I'm volunteering to do this. I'm volunteering to do that. He was always the first one volunteering when they needed someone. No matter how dangerous , he didn't care .”

Ray's only child survived with honors, which made the sudden end of his life even more puzzling and troubling.

“How you can go 13 some years with so much danger? Wonder whether you're going to get shot or whatever? And then come home and die in a car accident? That is something that will haunt me the rest of my life.”

Gamache spent the past few months turning away from those unanswerable questions to organize a fundraiser and auction to raise money for a scholarship in his son’s name. The event is scheduled for Sunday, April 29 at McGovern’s Family Restaurant in Fall River.

• Learn more about the CSF of Fall River scholarship

The $1,000, need-based scholarship that Gamache hopes will become annual will be awarded to a Fall River area graduate in May.

“Somebody that's having a tough time, the way the economy is. It can help someone who can’t afford to go to school, to get an education, to move on and to be a better person in society.”

He is expecting 200 people at the fundraiser and hopes to raise $2,000 while at the same time helping his son’s ‘hometown’ never forget what service means.

“I’m tying to keep his name alive to help other people the way he helped people in the service.”