Brian D Slavenas

At 6-foot-5, 1st Lt. Brian Slavenas stood out in a crowd, even though blending in was more comfortable. And Ronald Slavenas says his son probably wouldn't have been crazy about the word "hero" being used to describe his death. "He would say, 'No big deal.' He wouldn't want any kind of adulation," the father said. Brian Slavenas, 30, was the pilot of a Chinook helicopter shot down Nov. 2. Friends and family in Genoa, Ill., described Slavenas as a "gentle giant," a nonviolent man who felt a duty to his country. "He wasn't one of those gung-ho, want-to-go-to-war-type guys. He was there to do a job," said his brother, Eric Slavenas, who served in Grenada with the Army. Like his paratrooper father and two older...