Sorffly Davius

He was born in Haiti on Christmas Day 1979 and grew up in Cambria Heights, Queens. At August Martin High School he got into the aviation programme, which was of a piece with the boy who had built paper aeroplanes and flown them round the house with his sister. He never lost the fascination with aircraft.



He started in public service as an EMT with the FDNY and became a Rescue Medic, which meant the calls nobody else could take. While he was doing that he joined the New York Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing, and deployed on Operation Enduring Freedom from October 2010 to July 2011. Then he moved to the Army Guard - the 258th Field Artillery first, then the 42nd Infantry Division as a signal officer - and in 2014, while still soldiering, he joined the New York City Police Department and went to the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant. For a stretch he was on Joint Task Force Empire Shield, standing guard over the places in New York that someone would most want to hit.



Three uniforms. He wore them at the same time, for years, and took a degree from the Community College of the Air Force, a BA from City College and an MBA while he did it.



He went to Kuwait as Deputy G-6 of the 42nd, keeping the division talking to itself. He died at Camp Buehring on 6 March 2026 of a medical episode, aged forty-six, and the Bronze Star came afterwards. Governor Hochul called him the Citizen Soldier in every sense and put the flags at half-staff. Captain Christopher Schwenk, who brought him home, said he never led from his title - he led by investing in the people around him, and they rose to meet him.



He leaves his wife Angeline and six children: Ethan, Ayva, Maya, Audrey, Logan and Leina. His mother Marie Rosette is in Cambria Heights still. His father Jean Listin went before him.