Peter Neves (Spartan)

GSXRanger

Verified Alarmist
SOF Support
Joined
Sep 4, 2008
Messages
133
Location
Somewhere in the IRQ
I woke this morning to a text message on my phone. A good man died last night at 1800 hours, in his home, with his family. He went peacefully, and without pain.

His name was Peter (Pete) Neves and was known by most as "Spartan". The man who created www.armyranger.com back in 2002. I stumbled upon AR.com (as we all call it) by accident, while I was in California attending DLI. I immediately signed up for the site, and Pete was one of the first people I exchanged email with, and began my vetting process.

His wit, and sense of humor had me rolling on the floor, and caused me to finally call him. That's when he let me know of his physical condition. He was fighting a very aggressive form of cancer, and it was spread all over his body.

Pete told me that he hid it as long as he could, for he had a young daughter, and that was his biggest regret... not to live to see her grown.

This man fought hard. Through the Brotherhood of the website, and the Ranger community... we all kept up with Pete's progress... and regression... and on several occasions, his death was... well, exaggerated... only to have Ranger Spartan log on and post something to make us all laugh. He was one tough son of a bitch... and he has given strength to us all.

I never got a chance to meet Pete in person. I have very mixed feelings about this... part of me wished I could have, but another part of me has Pete in my memory a certain way, and I am content with that.

This is a small bio of Peter, writen by one of my fellow Rangers on the board... I will use it here, to show a bit about Peter.

"Peter Neves served in 2nd Platoon, B Co, 2/75 from 1984-1987. Pete graduated Ranger School in Class #12/85. While in 2nd Ranger Bn, he served as a rifleman, AG, Machinegunner, went to HHC to work as the Bn Cdrs Driver/RTO (LTC Jefferey J. Ellis and CSM Leon-Geurerro), then returned to be a Team Leader. Pete departed as a SGT to the Q Course, where he graduated as an 18C. He later served in 2nd Bn, 1st SFG in the S-4 Shop.

In December of 2002, Pete founded ArmyRanger.Com. The site started off as a small chatroom type board where a few Rangers and Vets gathered to have fun. Pete also founded the Ranger Quartermaster, where he designed and marketed high quality Ranger items. Over the years, his vision became the cornerstone of the online Ranger community."


How does this effect me? Well... as I type this, I have tears well up in my eyes. Not so much tears of sadness... but of humility, and resolve. Pete was very sick towards the end. I mean, the man wasted away to 90 pounds. He looked like a walking skeleton... but he never lost his humor. He never gave up. He looked death in the eye so many times, and fought back... getting one more breath, one more hug from his little girl... from his wife...

There were times when Pete was out of his mind on pain killers, but his family stood beisde him. His Wife, his Daughter and all of his Brothers and Sisters within the community.

Ranger Spartan... you will be missed. You were liked by most, disliked by some... but were an inspiration to us all.

I can only hope that if I am ever faced with anything remotely close to this in life, I can face it with the honor and dignity that you faced it with my Brother.

Rest easy Pete. You deserve it.

Rangers Lead The Way!!!
 
RIP Spartan. Thanks for sharing this GSX Ranger, sometimes we don't think about the people we meet on line that we get to know well, and some we meet, and some we don't. This man was truly an inspiration to many and obviously to you too.
 
Rest easy Pete....you deserve it. You were an inspiration, you were a good friend, my Brother....and you will be missed dearly. :(
 
Thank you for your write up and sharing a piece of this fine man with us, D.

RIP Spartan, my thoughts and prayers are with your family and Brothers.
 
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