The family of 28-year-old U.S. Army Pfc., and Hillsborough resident, Pawel Serafin remember their late relative as someone with a big personality, big dreams and a big heart.
”Pawel was outgoing, and enjoyed being around his friends,” said his brother Damian Serafin. “Being able to fit in with a crowd of people who didn’t know him wasn’t a problem for him (because that was) his nature.”
Pfc. Serafin, who was stationed at Fort Carson, Colo., was killed around 5:15 a.m. Feb. 13 when he was involved in a head-on car collision on Highway 115 South in Colorado Springs.
Pfc. Serafin died at the scene after the vehicle in which he was a passenger crossed the centerline of the highway into the northbound lane, and struck a pickup truck head-on, Colorado Springs police said. After the collision, another car traveling south struck both vehicles.
According to Damian Serafin, his family moved to Hillsborough in 1996, four years after arriving in the United States from Mielec, Poland where his brother, Pawel, was born in the early 1980s. They originally made the move to America in 1992 with parents Jozef and Danuta, and sons Pawel, Damian and Rafal.
Known by his friends as “Polish Pawel” because of his pride in his Polish heritage, Pfc. Serafin graduated from Hillsborough High School in 2000 with a goal of pursuing a career as an intelligence analyst.
After officially joining the army in April 2009, Damian Serafin said, Pfc. Serafin was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 16th Field Artillery Regiment, and was part of the 2nd Brigade Combat in Fort Carson, Colo.
Damian Serafin described his brother as someone who loved to draw and sketch, watch movies with battlefield scenes and listen to a wide range of music.
Whenever he was needed, Damian Serafin said, his brother was around to lend a helping hand.
”He was a great brother who always had something funny to say at the dinner table,” he said. “Pawel enjoyed life to the fullest, and told people if they made a mistake, or he made a mistake, ‘hey, nobody’s perfect.’”
A wake for Pfc. Serafin was held at Ketusky Funeral Home on Feb. 21, with a mass followed by full military honors on Feb. 22 at Sacred Heart Church in Manville.
”Our family is deeply saddened by this loss and want to thank all those in the community, as well as friends, who showed their support and prayers during this difficult time,” Damian Serafin said.
A second passenger in the vehicle at the time of the Feb. 13 accident 23-year-old Kale Clay, of Idaho was also killed in the crash, and the driver 24-year-old Jordan Peters, of Colorado was taken to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs in critical condition, police said.
Mr. Serafin and the others in the vehicle all were soldiers from Fort Carson.
