Oorah for Haylee
Thornsberry’s Life Changing Surprise Connects the Past and Extends Her Family
Gary Newman
The Ashland Beacon
Graduation time marks the completion of one chapter and turning the page into a brand-new chapter that builds on the story. It’s a time of making memories with longtime friends and planning for the future. It’s a time of reflection, and a harvest time where work is rewarded and scholarships are awarded. Some students are presented scholarships from beloved teachers, some from learning institutions, and some from civic leaders. For Russell High School graduate, Haylee Thornsberry, she was awarded a scholarship by people she’d never met, who were assembled in a covert operation and would forever change her life.
It all started on October 25, 2006 when tragedy struck as Lance Corporal Jonathan B. Thornsberry of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve based out of Tennessee had been deployed during Operation Iraq Freedom just a couple months earlier. Thornsberry, or JT as his platoon called him, was killed by enemy fire, leaving behind a wife and daughter, Haylee, who was only 18 months old. He received the Purple Heart, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, National Defense Service Medal, among other honors.
Last year, when Haylee’s mother, Toni Mullins, started to prepare for all the excitement and activity of her senior year, she started organizing the biggest surprise of her daughter’s life. Mullins started reaching out and connecting with the platoon of Haylee’s father with an idea to unite Haylee with a part of her past she couldn’t even remember. She invited the members to reunite for graduation week, and the response was repeatedly, “Oh yeah! When do I need to be there,” Mullins stated, “They have a brotherhood like nothing I’ve ever seen.” With a plan in place, getting everyone to the same time and place without Haylee finding out proved to be quite a challenge. She’d applied for a Marine Corps Scholarship, and it was the catalyst for getting Haylee in a place where the surprise could indeed happen. It wasn’t easy, however.
Looking back on high school, and the impact the pandemic had on students, Haylee acknowledged, “It was a weird experience. There was a year or two we weren’t there, then we were back, and then this year was amazing. It was like learning how to walk again.” The future Eastern Kentucky University Pre-Dentistry student played softball at both Russell and Boyd County over her four years of high school. Through all the graduation planning and looking forward to a summer filled with vacationing and concerts, she had no idea what surprise awaited.
Haylee didn’t want to go to the presentation of her Marine Corps scholarship, but her mom convinced her. She was also even more suspicious when she didn’t see any of her senior classmates there. “I didn’t realize what was happening. They started talking about my dad, giving mini-details; I started understanding what was happening,” Thornsberry recalled, “They called me down there, sat me down, and were reading a letter my dad had left me. They were talking about him. They called out the lone survivor of my dad’s Humvee, and I had no idea. Then, they called the rest of them out there. So surreal of a moment for me.” Twenty-five members of her father’s unit presented her with the scholarship. “These people served with my dad in Iraq, and my dad passed away when I was little. I’ve never met any of them, and they wanted to surprise me, come see me, introduce themselves and get to know me, and they presented me a scholarship,” Haylee remembered, adding, “So many tears shed. It was honestly great.”
Toni Mullins put together the whole covert operation with a lot of help and admittedly a lot of lies to keep it a secret for Haylee to be surprised. She was. “She told me yesterday it was the best day she’d ever had. Haylee was 18 months when her father passed. I think she’s wanted that for a long time,” Mullins explained, “My husband and I have been married 10 years, he’s her dad. She’s never missed a father-daughter dance; he’s been at every softball game, every single event.” Still, she had no connection to her fallen father. “She’s always had that emptiness wanting to know what he was like, what he acted like and how he was.” His unit bridged that gap. “They told her how funny he was, how brave he was, and how nothing ever scared him. How he knew what he was doing and where he was going. I knew if he could be here, he would,” Mullins shared, “One of the last things he said before he closed the Humvee door was ‘don’t eat my Cocoa Puffs’ – I didn’t know he liked Cocoa Puffs. One of the guys said they still have them; they took them home with them. She inherited uncles that are going to be at her wedding one of these days, probably tearing down the hospital when she has a kid, they’re going to follow her.”
Craig Bays served with JT and was a member of the unit that converged for graduation week. “It’s been awesome, actually. Big mix of emotions, and the biggest one is why am I doing this just now?” Bays questioned. The Michigan native recalls how long he had to think about making the trip before committing, “less than a second, I was all in right away. This is a once in a lifetime thing.” Many of the unit got matching commemorative tattoos, shared stories and just invested in the sharing of a remarkable life taken way too soon. “We should have done this years ago. All of us went through our own struggles, and it’s a good point in all of our lives to step in and be there,” Bays said. When asked if Haylee would have consistent influence of the soldiers she’d met this week, Bays concluded, “I see it very likely.”
Another unit member, Brad Bueno from Greenville, Michigan recalled his fallen friend. “Being here this week has been very interesting to me because I get to hear all the different accounts of who JT was and how he acted. I get a very different picture than the guy I knew,” Bueno recalled, “The guy that I knew was very soft spoken, very mature for his age, being 22 at the time, I was only 20 at a time. You couldn’t rattle JT. He was a cool customer, calm, collected, didn’t overreact to anything, and didn’t show too much emotion. To hear all the stories this week, they paint a very different picture about who he was as a husband, a father, a son. It’s been very interesting.” When contacted about this opportunity to connect with Haylee, his response was an emotional one. “When this came up, I was shocked and surprised in a good way and just excited to be here. A little anxious and a little nervous. I hope she knows that we’re here because of a love that we have for her dad. We’re a brotherhood. We’re just here to support each other, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud to be a Marine than being a part of this event.” Bueno offered, “For a lot of us, we’ve been done serving for over 10 years. To pick up, it’s like we never left each other; we’re always here to support the guy on our left and our right. I hope this has been nothing but a positive experience for her.”
“Her father’s not here, and we’re doing all we can to fill that empty place,” Bueno stated, “Whatever the next chapter is, maybe college graduation, maybe it’s a wedding, maybe it’s a whatever it is: if we know about it, I’m sure we’ll all show up.”
Every story is unique, and Haylee Thornsberry may long remember her graduation week as the time she went to get an award and ended up with a whole extended family. They were brought together by a common bond, a tragic loss, and a fierce loyalty to brotherhood by those who’ve served and suffered loss, and those who suffered loss at home as a result. That’s the kind of connection that will always stand!
We’d like to thank Lance Corporal Jonathan B. Thornsberry and his family for the sacrifice he gave for our country.
