Westfall said Drew was instrumental in her healing, as was her decision to seek counseling for her grief.Ī key moment came when a counselor suggested she might be angry at Jacques. Johns County and have three children, 11, 8 and 5. He made her laugh.Īnd though she writes how she had trepidation about introducing Drew to the tight-knit community of Navy SEALs that had been her life, he was eventually welcomed in by most. It turns out she found companionship with Drew Westfall, a neighbor who lived 13 houses down the street from her parents. My husband’s gone, I have no kids, who’s going to want to date me?” ”People told me: ‘You were really strong, God knew you could handle it.’ I got sick of that. She struggled with that: “How can God love anyone and do what he did to my husband and 18 other men back on June 28, 2005?” His frequent answer? “Oh, I’m just going to do a little helicopter flying today.”Īfter Jacques’ death, she came home to Jacksonville, moving in with her parents. When she and Jacques spoke on the phone, she ended every call by asking him to be careful. “There is so much about military life nobody will tell you, and soon I would learn just how much goes unsaid.” “I think I just got better at hiding it,” she writes. Westfall, who’s now 44, writes that she wasn’t overly concerned when he first deployed: “SEALs are the kind of people you expect will make it home.”īut as time went on, she felt an “underlying dread” that grew and grew. 11, 2001, he would be gone on several deployments, the last one to Afghanistan.
When he finally got the chance, the oldest in his class, he pushed through the tough training and succeeded.
My admiration for Char and all of the families who lost their loved ones that horrific day will never cease,” Lutrell wrote.Īs a sailor, Jacques’ dream was to become a SEAL. He was and will always be remembered as a warrior who never quit. “Jacques was on the bird that came to get my teammates and I out of the hornet’s nest. “A Beautiful Tragedy” has a brief foreword by Marcus Lutrell, author of “Lone Survivor” and the SEAL played by Walhberg in the movie of the same name. She wanted to write the book to show others the struggles she went through, so they know they’re not alone. Westfall serves on the boards of several organizations for surviving military spouses. It also tells how she found new love, regained her faith and grew to accept what had happened there in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. It tells of the aftermath of his death and her struggle with anger - at God, at Jacques, at the universe. Self-published, it’s a frank story of the couple’s courting and their marriage in 2000. The book, which comes out in August, can be pre-ordered on Amazon. “I wasn’t a believer in love at first sight, but it sure was something at first sight,” Westfall writes in a soon-to-be published book, “A Beautiful Tragedy: A Navy SEAL Widow’s Permission to Grieve and Recipe for Hope” (Ballast Books). She was used to seeing fit, handsome men at the NAS Jacksonville pool, but there was just something about him. Jacques was eight years older, a trainer for the Navy’s Search and Rescue program. What? Like she was ever going to wear them again? She dutifully attended each one, numb, and after the services were over, she took scissors to each dress, cut them up and threw out the shredded remnants. Suddenly she was a widow being shepherded by friends to buy the funeral dresses she would need for three separate services: One in Jacksonville, one in Jacques’ hometown of New Orleans, and one for the Navy’s official ceremony for the men killed in what was known as Operation Red Wings.
RELATED | Read more Jacksonville-area news She was waiting for him in Virginia Beach, Va., where they had planned to start a family after his active duty was over. Scherkenbach, a 40-year-old Jacksonville native.įontan, a member of the Navy’s elite SEALs, was 36 when he was killed, and Char was 29. Jacques Fontan, her husband whom she met in 1996 when they were lifeguards at Naval Air Station Jacksonville’s swimming pool, was one of the men killed on board that Chinook, as was Army Chief Warrant Officer Chris J. It’s a brief, crushing scene toward the end of the 2013 fact-based film “Lone Survivor,” in which Mark Wahlberg plays the only one of those four SEALs who made it to safety.įor Char Fontan Westfall, though, that scene remains a nightmare all these years later, albeit a nightmare from which she has created a new, happy life - though not without much struggle along the way.
The helicopter exploded in flames and plunged to earth, killing all 16 aboard. Fifteen years ago in the mountains of Afghanistan, a rocket-propelled grenade struck an MH-47 Army Chinook helicopter that had raced to support four Navy SEALs who were outnumbered and pinned down on a rock-strewn ridge.
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