'A great, big kid'Slavenas remembered by family and friends

GENOA - Community members gradually found out Monday that a local Illinois National Guard soldier had died in a helicopter crash early Sunday. First Lt. Brian Slavenas, 30, of Genoa was the pilot of a Chinook helicopter shot down near Fallujah, Iraq, around midnight CST. He and 15 others were killed. Lance Gackowski, a science teacher at DeKalb High School, remembers Slavenas as both a student and an employee. Between semesters at the University of Illinois, Slavenas helped load trucks for Gackowski's furniture business. "He was outstanding," Gackowski said about Slavenas' work ethic. "He was a great, big kid." According to Gackowski, Slavenas bulked up after he started lifting weights more when he got out of high school. "It was almost ha