By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
John Latchum Jr.'s flight helmet, Army boots and M-16
rifle flank his photo at a memorial service this morning
at Wheeler Army Airfield chapel.

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A private service for
John Latchum draws more
than 60 people

Jaymes K. Song
and Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Dozens of soldiers quietly filed into the quaint chapel at Wheeler Army Airfield as soft organ music flowed through the church. The morning sun gleamed through the colorful stained glass onto the neatly folded uniform and shiny dogtags of the slain soldier.

They came this morning to remember Army helicopter pilot John Latchum Jr., who was shot to death last week while vacationing with his family at an Army facility in Waianae.

"John Latchum was a great patriot, pilot, soldier, husband, father and friend," stated the program for the private memorial service. "He will be sorely missed by all who knew him."

Latchum, 33, a chief warrant officer who served 14 years in the Army, was killed early Wednesday at the Waianae Army Recreation Center when he confronted several men who his wife said were trying to break into their beach-front rental unit.

Latchum's medals and flight helmet were displayed at the church along with a photo of him sitting in his helicopter.

Latchum's wife, Wendy, his close friends and 60 of his fellow unit members were in attendance for the 9:30 a.m. service.

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Latchum's flight jacket and dog tags.

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According to a U.S. Army spokesman, Latchum's body will be flown tomorrow to the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, where he will be buried on Friday.

Today's services were held at Wheeler Army Airfield chapel, near where Latchum had been assigned since August 1995 as a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot with the 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment.

Timothy Cubero Jr., a teacher at the Wheeler Army Airfield campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, recalled "John's personal commission was to his country, his family, his college studies, to the world and a society that you and I still have that he never failed to believe in."

"John, for those of us lucky to travel the many flights of human desires you so readily embraced, greet us with your pilot wings when our own tour of duty becomes complete on this Earth," Cubero said in a letter to the Star-Bulletin.

A trust fund has been created in Latchum's memory. Call 656-0430 for more information.

Meanwhile, no arrests have been made, FBI agents said.

As many as eight young men were seen about the time of the shooting.