Sheppard mourns tragic passing of Sergeant Welch

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tonnette Thompson
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Sheppard personnel, largely consisting of the 882nd Training Group, filled the North Chapel Sept. 20, sharing their sorrow and offering each other comfort in a memorial service for one of their own, Staff Sgt. Charles Welch. 

A helpdesk technician with the 882nd Training Support Squadron, Sergeant Welch died Sept. 16 from injuries sustained in a one-vehicle accident. 

A table on the small stage at the chapel held Sergeant Welch's personal belongings. Toy cars. Mugs collected from different squadrons. Certificates of achievement in training, promotion and volunteer work. In the center, a family portrait of him and his wife, Shannon, flanking their young daughter, Kashayla. 

The table itself was book-ended by poster board photos of Sergeant Welch, one relaxed and smiling with his friends, the other posed in uniform, staring solemnly at the camera.
The table stood in the absence of a casket. 

Citing the line in the Airman's Creed that states I will never leave an Airman behind, 882nd TRSS Commander Lt. Col. Richard Terry vowed it was the duty of himself and all those in the church to remember "the joy (Sergeant Welch) brought his family and coworkers," that in doing so, Sergeant Welch would stay with them always. 

There were even fleeting moments of laughter during the service, as Staff Sgt. Lakeesha Thomas, 383rd Training Squadron, offered words of remembrance. 

Sergeant Thomas recalled a time when she was collecting donations outside Wal-Mart, and Sergeant Welch drove by. A promise of a donation turned into a daily joke between them as he promised again and again to get Sergeant Thomas her money, eventually. 

"This went on for two months," Sergeant Thomas told the softly chuckling congregation. "Every time we saw each other in the hallway, I'd get that smile and he'd tell me, 'I haven't forgotten.'" 

Sergeant Thomas saw that smile and received that promise for the last time on Sept. 14. She insists that she won't take the sadness, shock or awe with her, "only his smile." 

After offering the 23rd Psalm, Chap. (Capt.) Thomas Baize informed the mourners that Sergeant Welch followed in his Army sergeant father's footsteps when he entered military service in June 1996, during the United States military's peacekeeping initiative in Bosnia. 

Chaplain Baize went on to thank the Welch family, for sharing Sergeant Welch with the Air Force for 11 years. 

Sergeant Welch is also survived by a son, his parents, his brother and four sisters.