Published Sunday December 21, 2008
Hunting helps man who lost son in Iraq to heal
BY DAVID HENDEE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
SPENCER, Neb. — Ken Hollopeter’s search goes on.
With binoculars, Ken Hollopeter scans the frozen Boyd 
County horizon in north-central Nebraska during an elk hunt this month while his son, on Army Capt. Tyler Hollopeter, sits on the other side of the fence. He planned to continue his quest for a bull elk again today.
This spring, Hollopeter won a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission lottery for a permit to hunt a bull elk.
But long before his raffle ticket was drawn, Hollopeter’s hunts were about something bigger than trophy elk, mule deer or wild turkey. He hunted to spend time with his children. He hunted to teach them about the natural world. He hunted to model outdoor ethics.
Now he hunts to heal.
Hollopeter’s two sons went to war in Iraq. Joe was an Army sniper. Tyler was an Army armed reconnaissance helicopter pilot. In June 2007, they both came home to Valentine. Joe was in a flag-draped casket. Tyler was his brother’s military escort.
Nine months after burying the older son, Hollopeter won the elk raffle. He dedicated the hunt to Joe.
Posted with binoculars and a high-powered rifle on the wintry rim of a prairie ridge in north-central Nebraska, the 52-year-old Hollopeter scanned the horizon and remembered.
Tyler Hollopeter, center, with his trophy mule deer in December 2006. At left is nephew Kalen and at right is brother Joe. This was Joe Hollopeter’s last hunt in the state with his family.
“There’ll never be a time we go hunting that we won’t think about him not being with us,” he said. “We went hunting last year in Wyoming. It wasn’t as enjoyable as it would be normally.”
Hollopeter’s early December trip to the rugged Missouri River canyons northeast of Spencer was his fifth outing this season to one of Nebraska’s designated elk-hunting areas, in search of an appropriate bull.
He limited his hunts to weekends so 13-year-old grandson Kalen Hollopeter could tag along. Kalen is the son of Hollopeter’s daughter, Annie Hollopeter.
Hollopeter is a co-owner of Valentine Feed Service Co. He also operates Niobrara Wilderness Outfitters, a deer- and turkey-hunting guide service, with a partner.
The trip to Boyd County was especially meaningful to Hollopeter because son Tyler — a captain home on leave from Fort Bragg, N.C. — joined the outing.
With binoculars trained on mule deer, whitetails and turkeys moving among cedar trees in the canyon and draws below — or the western horizon a mile away — the Hollopeters reminisced about Joe as they watched for elk.
Ken Hollopeter taught his two sons and daughter to hunt when they were young.
“There were times we’d be sitting on a side hill and there’d be me and the three kids hiding behind one soapweed and calling in coyotes,” he said. “By the time each was 9 years old, they had shot a coyote.”
Then came hunting grouse and doves. “We had three single-shot 20-gauge shotguns. They’d walk in a line in front of me, and I never carried a gun. Once I started taking my kids hunting, I didn’t quit hunting, but I basically quit shooting,” he said.
Thanksgiving- and Christmas-morning hunts are a family tradition.
Hollopeter said Joe had excellent eye-hand coordination and developed into a sharpshooter.
At times.
“He had extreme control, but you put a gun in his hand and a deer in front of him and it was hard to tell what was going to happen,” Hollopeter said.
The Hollopeters recalled a hunt when Joe took at least 15 shots at a mule deer doe with muzzleloaders reloaded by Ken and Tyler.
“We followed this doe for about two miles to get into position to shoot,” Hollopeter said. “Joe would shoot. Tyler would hand him a gun and he’d shoot again. We’d move again (following the deer). We’d hand him a gun and he’d shoot again.”
Joe finally hit and killed the doe.
Hollopeter said Joe’s decision to become an Army sniper was a surprise, because he wasn’t a natural-born marksman. But Joe excelled.
Joe, who was 27 and held the rank of specialist, was the shooter on a four-man 1st Cavalry Division sniper team northeast of Baghdad. The unit provided cover for soldiers removing improvised explosive devices. On June 14, 2007, insurgents in Muqdadiyah attacked the team and killed Joe in a firefight.
Tyler was based about 60 miles away at the time. The brothers hadn’t been able to see each other in Iraq, but they shared family hunts via DVDs shipped to Iraq by their parents.
The last time the brothers were together, they hunted deer south of Valentine in December 2006.
“The only time we had to see each other was hunting trips,” Tyler said.
After Joe’s death, Ken Hollopeter and his wife, Kelly, established a fund from memorial gifts to perpetuate their son’s memory by sharing his hunting passion with others.
Hollopeter plans to take one of Joe’s high school friends on an elk hunt to New Mexico late this month. He hopes it’s the first of several hunts to introduce a hunting experience in Joe’s memory to someone who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.
Hollopeter said the death of his mother of cancer at age 48 and Joe’s death reinforced his belief that thinking “there’s always next year” is a flawed philosophy.
“There may be next year, but there’ll never be Dec. 31, 2008, again. You miss that day hunting and you’ll never get it back.”
Parents never fully heal from a child’s death, Hollopeter said.
“But hunting is part of the healing process for me,” he said. “I need to get away. I’m not a people person. I’d much rather be out here on a hill.”
After 10 hours on the hilltop, the sun set behind a bank of dark gray clouds on the horizon. The hunters packed away their guns and gear and headed home to Valentine.
No elk were seen. No rifles fired. But the hunting was good.
• Contact the writer: 444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
