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David Anibal De Reyes
David Anibal De Reyes
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He pursued his career at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, as a Foreign Language Teacher, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish in 2020. Later he was commissioned as a second Lieutenant through the ROTC program in 2021. He received orders to attend Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was assigned to the 1st Battalion 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas, after graduating in 2022. In 2023, he was deployed on a tour overseas in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, and Iraq where he proudly served his country. David received high marks for performance as an Officer, exemplary leadership, and exceeded expectations of his superiors, resulting in a promotion to Captain.
David was the youngest of five brothers and incredibly strong willed, with the courage to aspire for greatness and climb higher. He was very driven and was a dedicated student focused on achieving his goals. As a professional, he had an exceptionally high standard of work ethic, leadership, and accountability. David was always known for his punctuality, even as a child. He was outspoken, neither afraid to speak his mind nor to challenge perspective.
He loved music and learned to play the saxophone. He had an interest in learning languages, including French and Arabic, with mastery of Spanish. David comes from a family of teachers, where all four brothers, multiple aunts and uncles, and his father, are educators in Northwest Arkansas. Additionally, David adored animals and had a Doberman named Revenant. He loved being outdoors and working on "do it yourself" projects with his father and older brother Jonathan. David frequently displayed his generosity, as he enjoyed giving gifts and sharing with others. He was always thoughtful and supportive, and ready to help friends and family. He was incredibly genuine and loyal to those he loved and will be missed dearly by everyone who knew him.
He is survived by his wife, Sydney Childress, parents, Jacinta and Lorenzo Reyes, Major US Army Retired; brothers, Stephen (wife Kaitlyn), Alexander (partner Lilia), William (wife Xenia), and Jonathan Reyes. In addition to many other relatives of the Rojas Lucero and Reyes Donoso family in Chile, and extended family in Arkansas, uncle Carlos Reyes, cousins Carlo, Carlito, Dyanna, and Sonya Reyes.
A visitation will be held on Friday, April 26, 2024, at Nelson Berna Funeral Home, 4520 North Crossover Rd, Fayetteville, AR 72764, from 4pm to 6pm. Additionally, there are guest speakers and an open-mic to share memories of David from 6pm to 7pm. To leave a tribute, please visit www.bernafuneralhomes.com
For those who wish to attend, a Rosary will be held at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 1722 North Starr Dr, Fayetteville, AR 72701, on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at 11:30am, followed by a funeral Word Service at 12pm.
A Burial Ceremony with military honors will proceed at approximately 1:30pm at Fairview Memorial Gardens, 1728 East Mission Blvd, Fayetteville, AR 72703.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in David's honor to the Central Junior High School "International Heritage Scholarship" at www.spsef.org/donations
The Reyes family strongly believes in education, and this is a great way to honor his legacy at Central JH in the Springdale, AR school district. Please include "David Reyes" in the memo section to direct funds to this scholarship.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
2 Entries
O. Joshua Omolade
April 26, 2024
I first met David a little bit after I moved to El Paso. Fort Bliss was my first duty station. When I got to the unit, all of the platoon leader positions were already taken, so I was assigned to shadow and co-lead with David until a spot opened up, so that he would take it and I would replace him. For about three months, I was David´s shadow as he taught me everything he did, showed me the ropes of what it takes to be a platoon leader in the unit. I had no clue what I was doing when I first got there, so I relied on him to help me survive. Being so close to David, I was privileged to see his personality firsthand; how he was friendly yet firm, serious yet hilarious, and above all, a caring leader.
Friendly yet firm. David was a pillar in the battery, one of a (very) few officers that I looked up to in the battalion. Many of the soldiers looked up to him, and felt comfortable coming to him about personal issues they were going through. He was reliable and very well respected by everyone in the unit. While he was friendly, he knew when it was time to get things done, and because he was so respected, soldiers responded and got to work.
He was serious, but hilarious at the right times. The first day that I met him, a soldier came into the office looking for his hat. David made some excuse so the soldier would look somewhere else. Then he asked me to check the freezer, and behold, there was the hat, frozen in all its glory. That was his thing, when people left stuff lying around, he would "keep it safe" in the freezer. Unless it was food, if you left food around, consider it gone because he was definitely going to eat it.
Another thing was that we would notify each other when the battalion commander was around, so that we would hide in order to avoid getting in trouble. It was a whole protocol, whenever one of us found out, we would warn each other, get into David´s office, lock the door and turn off the lights and stay quiet until the BC either left the hallway or left the building.
He was a caring leader. One of the most important things I learned by watching him, is how stood up for his soldiers. They admired him for it, as he inspired and motivated them. Whenever there was news or instructions he received that seemed unfair for his soldiers, he would stand up to it, in order to protect them. And all of his soldiers knew that there wasn´t anything that he would asked them to do that he wasn´t willing to do himself. He truly earned the respect of the soldiers by doing the work, and being with them when the goings got rough. He did the same for me as well, whenever I was faced with something I couldn´t handle, if he couldn´t show me how or couldn´t guide me through it, he would do it all on his own, even refusing my help because he knew whenever I wasn´t yet ready.
Nearly everything I do now as an officer is directly or indirectly due to David´s influence in my life. As a 2nd Lieutenant, one is colloquially called a "butter-bar" due to the gold bar symbol on the rank. However, in the next higher rank of 1st Lieutenant, which David was when I first go there, instead of a gold bar, the rank has a black bar symbol. One day we were eating lunch and I noticed that David´s rank looked a little funny, and I thought it was due to the camouflage pattern behind it. However, much to my surprise, David said that it looked that way because, when he promoted, he didn´t want to buy another rank for his uniform, so he used a Sharpie marker to color his gold bar into a black one. I thought that was the funniest thing, so when it was my turn to promote to 1LT later that year, I followed his example and did the same thing, I don´t think anybody noticed so I might get in trouble for mentioning it. I just wish he could´ve seen it.
Due to medical reasons, I wasn´t able to join the unit on deployment. The last time I saw David, was when I drove him to the airport (ADACG) the day he was heading out. I was returning a favor, as he drove me home from the El Paso airport when I came back from visiting family. I never knew that would be the last time, so it didn´t feel real at first when I heard the news. I´d only found out he´d returned at the same time I found out that he was gone.
I wish I could´ve said goodbye, I wish I didn´t have to, that we´d just go back to having lunch at the USO everyday like we used to, to putting hats in the freezer, to hanging out and hiding out in the office.
Thank you for all you´ve been for me, David. I´m truly a better person for knowing you. I miss you deeply, brother.
-Joshua Omolade
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O. Joshua Omolade
April 26, 2024
I first met David a little bit after I moved to El Paso. Fort Bliss was my first duty station. When I got to the unit, all of the platoon leader positions were already taken, so I was assigned to shadow and co-lead with David until a spot opened up, so that he would take it and I would replace him. For about three months, I was David’s shadow as he taught me everything he did, showed me the ropes of what it takes to be a platoon leader in the unit. I had no clue what I was doing when I first got there, so I relied on him to help me survive. Being so close to David, I was privileged to see his personality firsthand; how he was friendly yet firm, serious yet hilarious, and above all, a caring leader.
Friendly yet firm. David was a pillar in the battery, one of a (very) few officers that I looked up to in the battalion. Many of the soldiers looked up to him, and felt comfortable coming to him about personal issues they were going through. He was reliable and very well respected by everyone in the unit. While he was friendly, he knew when it was time to get things done, and because he was so respected, soldiers responded and got to work.
He was serious, but hilarious at the right times. The first day that I met him, a soldier came into the office looking for his hat. David made some excuse so the soldier would look somewhere else. Then he asked me to check the freezer, and behold, there was the hat, frozen in all its glory. That was his thing, when people left stuff lying around, he would “keep it safe” in the freezer. Unless it was food, if you left food around, consider it gone because he was definitely going to eat it.
Another thing was that we would notify each other when the battalion commander was around, so that we would hide in order to avoid getting in trouble. It was a whole protocol, whenever one of us found out, we would warn each other, get into David’s office, lock the door and turn off the lights and stay quiet until the BC either left the hallway or left the building.
He was a caring leader. One of the most important things I learned by watching him, is how stood up for his soldiers. They admired him for it, as he inspired and motivated them. Whenever there was news or instructions he received that seemed unfair for his soldiers, he would stand up to it, in order to protect them. And all of his soldiers knew that there wasn’t anything that he would asked them to do that he wasn’t willing to do himself. He truly earned the respect of the soldiers by doing the work, and being with them when the goings got rough. He did the same for me as well, whenever I was faced with something I couldn’t handle, if he couldn’t show me how or couldn’t guide me through it, he would do it all on his own, even refusing my help because he knew whenever I wasn’t yet ready.
Nearly everything I do now as an officer is directly or indirectly due to David’s influence in my life. As a 2nd Lieutenant, one is colloquially called a “butter-bar” due to the gold bar symbol on the rank. However, in the next higher rank of 1st Lieutenant, which David was when I first go there, instead of a gold bar, the rank has a black bar symbol. One day we were eating lunch and I noticed that David’s rank looked a little funny, and I thought it was due to the camouflage pattern behind it. However, much to my surprise, David said that it looked that way because, when he promoted, he didn’t want to buy another rank for his uniform, so he used a Sharpie marker to color his gold bar into a black one. I thought that was the funniest thing, so when it was my turn to promote to 1LT later that year, I followed his example and did the same thing, I don’t think anybody noticed so I might get in trouble for mentioning it. I just wish he could’ve seen it.
Due to medical reasons, I wasn’t able to join the unit on deployment. The last time I saw David, was when I drove him to the airport (ADACG) the day he was heading out. I was returning a favor, as he drove me home from the El Paso airport when I came back from visiting family. I never knew that would be the last time, so it didn’t feel real at first when I heard the news. I’d only found out he’d returned at the same time I found out that he was gone.
I wish I could’ve said goodbye, I wish I didn’t have to, that we’d just go back to having lunch at the USO everyday like we used to, to putting hats in the freezer, to hanging out and hiding out in the office.
Thank you for all you’ve been for me, David. I’m truly a better person for knowing you. I miss you deeply, brother.
- Joshua Omolade
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4520 N. Crossover Rd., Fayetteville, AR 72703
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