By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Shannon Fortier was all about adventure: Swimming. Dirt biking. Rock climbing.

But it was the Air Force’s Junior ROTC program that inspired the 15-year-old’s dreams. She wanted to fly.

“She loved it. She just thought it was fun,” said 14-year-old Kayla Larrivee, a longtime friend, last week.

As a Lewiston High School freshman, Fortier already felt the military calling. She planned to be an Air Force pilot when she grew up.

She had big dreams, her father said. And she had the will and talent to make them come true.

But those dreams ended last Thursday during an ROTC summer camp field trip. Fortier, Nicholas Babcock, 17, Teisha Loesberg, 16, and pilot William Charles Weir, 24, were killed when their small plane crashed on Barker Mountain in Newry.

On Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered at the Holy Family Church in Lewiston – where Fortier had been an alter server – to mourn and remember the youngest of the ROTC three.

“She was one of those people who was capable of being a leader by example, who was able to get the job done in a quiet way,” said high school Principal Gus LeBlanc after Fortier’s funeral. “And in the process, she got the respect of those around her.”

Wednesday morning, ROTC cadets removed the flowers and mementos that had been laid at the high school’s flag pole in honor of the trio. Rows of tiny flags – placed there by friends, community members and military veterans – were left to flutter in memorial.

A couple of hours before Fortier’s funeral, dozens of ROTC cadets lowered the high school flag to half-staff. It’s a ceremony that will be repeated today and Saturday, before Babcock and Loesberg’s good-byes.

About 300 people attended Fortier’s service, LeBlanc said, including ROTC cadets in dress blues and Air Force representatives.

Friends and family posted photos of Fortier – laughing, posing in her First Communion dress, smiling for a school picture – on a bulletin board at the funeral home. They also attached Chinese food chopsticks and colorful boxes of her favorite candy.

A day after the crash, friends and family remembered Fortier as a bright, friendly teenager who was outgoing with friends and quiet with others.

“Everybody loved her when they met her,” said 18-year-old Heather Larrivee, Kayla’s sister and Fortier’s longtime friend.

Fortier collected swords and had a passion for Japanese animation. She planned to take Japanese language lessons next year.

She was also an athlete. Fortier liked rock climbing, horseback riding and biking. She was a member of the Lewiston High School swim team and often spent weekends riding dirt bikes with her father.

But Fortier didn’t want to confine her adventures to pools and trails. She learned about the ROTC program from Heather Larrivee and thought it sounded like fun. She went to ROTC camp last summer and, on a field trip, fell in love with flying.

“That was her favorite part of the camp,” her father, John Fortier, said.

When she couldn’t soar for real, Fortier often dashed to the ROTC’s computerized flight simulator. She couldn’t wait to fly at camp this summer.

ROTC might have satisfied her thirst for flight but it wasn’t the only thing keeping her in uniform. She liked the “military thing,” her father said.

Sharp and disciplined, Shannon Fortier excelled during drills. She was eager, but not loud.

Said Col. Robert Meyer, head of Lewiston’s ROTC program, the day before her funeral, “She was a silent leader.”

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