Alumni Profiles

Capt. Benjamin Keating '04 and 1st Lt. Scott Quilty '04 began their UNH journey together in 2000, when they enrolled in the Army ROTC program. They participated in countless early morning field exercises, spent many a late night studying for exams, and, as seniors, became roommates. By 2006, they had something else in common: both were assigned to serve in war zones, Keating in Afghanistan and Quilty in Iraq.

Last fall, Quilty was lying in a hospital bed at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., when he heard the news that Keating had died in a truck accident in Afghanistan on Nov. 26 while serving with the Army's 10th Mountain Division. Riding at night from a small northern outpost to his base in Nuristan without lights to avoid an attack, Keating was thrown from the vehicle when the truck rolled into a ravine. He was 27 years old.

"Ben was really something else," says Quilty, who had sustained serious injuries himself while leading a foot patrol in Iraq. "He was intelligent and analytical. Everyone looked up to him. Everything we were taught just came naturally to him. He really wanted to serve overseas and contribute to the whole war on terrorism." He was, Quilty adds, "so close to coming home."

The Keating family had spoken to their son on Thanksgiving Day, says his mother, Elizabeth. "He had incredible faith. He was deeply concerned for the welfare of the soldiers under him. He wanted to make sure they would return safely," she says. "We've received countless letters from them speaking of his ability to relate to the younger soldiers. He was a real role model."

Growing up in Shapleigh, Maine, Keating was a youth leader and taught Sunday School at Springvale First Baptist Church, where both his parents are ministers. A classics and history major--his mother says he chose to study classics to help broaden his understanding of the need to take the world seriously--he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He was awarded the Marshall Award, an annual recognition presented to the most outstanding Army ROTC cadet.

First Lt. Megan McGrevey '04, a patient administration officer in Seattle who is a friend of both officers, says it's been an emotional time for the ROTC classmates. She remembers Keating as the "go-to guy" for advice, help with homework and a guaranteed source of a laugh. "I cannot even begin to tell you about all the class and field times and parties where he would have us all laughing until we cried."

First Lt. Ryan Crosby '04 recalls meeting Keating in Portsmouth for dinner when Crosby and his wife, Lt. Cassandra Cook Crosby '04, had returned from Iraq in late September and Keating was home from Afghanistan on leave. "It was as though nothing had changed--Ben was as fun, charming and kind as ever. His experience in the Army and Afghanistan had not jaded him; he still felt great pride in his service; still felt that serving his country in time of war was a citizen's highest calling."

As for Quilty, his injuries--sustained on Oct. 1 when a roadside bomb detonated--were so severe that he required 15 surgeries during the first five weeks after the explosion. Doctors had to amputate an arm and one of his legs. He will continue physical and occupational therapy for six more months to help his body adjust to his prosthetics.

"Things are moving pretty quickly with the therapy," he says. "A day that I don't have them on feels sort of odd now." Helping with his recovery is his new wife, Lt. AnnMarie Wilcox '03. They were married in a bedside ceremony at the hospital on Nov. 11. "It's ironic," Quilty says, "that her major was occupational therapy and mine was political science."

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