On June 28, 2012, between 11:30 p.m. and midnight, David Prasnicki, recently retired VMI Alumni Agencies CEO, answered the door to find two U.S. Army officers standing outside. Inside a fraction of a second, he knew that every parent’s worst nightmare had come true.
Prasnicki’s oldest child, Army 1st Lt. Stephen “Chase” Prasnicki, a 2006 graduate of Rockbridge County High School and a 2010 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, had been killed the day before by an improvised explosive device while on patrol with his unit in Afghanistan. He was 24 years old.
And while no amount of comfort from friends and family can assuage the endless grief of losing a child, Prasnicki found himself sustained by the immediate support of the VMI family when the loss was at its rawest.
That night, after calling his family, Prasnicki reached out to Greg Cavallaro, VMI Class of 1984, who was then VMI Keydet Club chief operating officer. Cavallaro was soon on Prasnicki’s doorstep, and as the two men stood outside on the Prasnicki family’s porch sometime between 1 and 2 a.m., Prasnicki remarked, “Well, if there’s a God in heaven, Chase is there.” What happened next is something neither Prasnicki nor Cavallaro will ever forget.
“And right around that time, a [shooting] star went airborne, and Greg today would probably tell you that’s probably one of the most interesting things he’s ever seen in his life,” Prasnicki remarked.
At 8 a.m. the next morning, another knock came at the door, and this time, it was Conrad Hall, VMI Class of 1965, standing there. “David, I had to come,” said Hall, a longtime VMI supporter and board member. Even before Hall’s arrival, former NFL Coach Bobby Ross, a member of the VMI Class of 1959, had called to offer his condolences.
“My first two interactions were with VMI people,” Prasnicki noted.
In early July 2012, a large crowd gathered in Marshall Hall on the VMI post for Chase’s celebration of life service. “The outpouring – the number of VMI people that were there was just amazing,” he recalled.
In August 2022, members of the VMI family and the wider community gathered again in Chase’s memory – but this time, it was to honor him and U.S. Army Capt. Andrew Patrick “Drew” Ross, another Rockbridge area native and USMA graduate killed in the Global War on Terror, as the football field at Rockbridge County High School, the alma mater of both men, was renamed Prasnicki-Ross Field in their honor.
Speaking at the dedication ceremony that evening, Prasnicki said of his fallen son, “Chase was always committed to the right thing to do, not only for himself, but for others.”
This summer, the names of Prasnicki and Ross were further memorialized when a logo bearing the words Prasnicki- Ross Veterans Stadium was installed on the new artificial turf field at RCHS.
At VMI, a scholarship bearing Chase Prasnicki’s name was instituted by alumni and friends of the Prasnicki family – and today, the value of the scholarship is such that it gives the cadet recipient almost a free ride. Fittingly, it’s earmarked for a football or lacrosse player from the Rockbridge area, as Chase Prasnicki played both sports while he was growing up.
Said Prasnicki, “My goal is to replenish the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force with people like Chase.”
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