Always and Eagle
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on February 16, 2017 8:48 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Lexi takes a break from being "Pilot for a Day" to share the moment with her little sister Aeris Williams, 1.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Ashley Williams and her daughter Lexi "Crusher" Chamberlain pose for a photo as Lexi sits in the cockpit of an F-15E Wednesday.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Lexi is escorted up a set of stairs to the cockpit of an F-15E by Capt. Andy Lawler of the 334th Fighter Squadron.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Capt. Andy Lawler of the 334th Fighter Squadron shows Alexis Chamberlain, 7, the inside of the cockpit from the front seat of an F-15E Wednesday as Lexi becomes "Pilot for a Day." She was diagnosed leukemia last July.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Alexis "Crusher" Chamberlain walks around with a smile on her face in her miniature flight suit as "Pilot for a Day."
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Lexi places the 334th fighter squadron hat she was given on the head of her little sister Aeirs Williams, 1.
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Lexi smiles as she holds the wings that were pinned onto her flight suit. Under her hand is a patch with her call sign Lexi "Crusher" Chamberlain.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Lexi "Crusher" Chamberlain poses for a photo with her new sign that has her call sign on it. In addition to the sign she was also given several other momentous to commemorate the day.
Alexis Chamberlain placed her hand on her mother's face.
Ashley Williams sat on Alexis' hospital bed, where she had told her daughter she would do anything for her.
"Yes, but I won't let you die for me," Alexis said.
The 7-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia last July. She immediately began receiving chemotherapy to help destroy the cancer.
As Alexis, who attends Sunset Park Elementary School in Wilmington, continued to endure the chemotherapy, her family soon realized she was a fighter.
Alexis showed that fighting characteristic Wednesday when she became the pilot for a day of an F15-E Strike Eagle fighter jet at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
She said she had taken a helicopter ride before ---- to the hospital ---- but that proved to be miserable.
She said she enjoyed sitting in a jet.
"It wasn't that fun when I was going to the hospital," Alexis said.
Dressed in her child-sized flight suit -- with her call sign, Lexi "Crusher" Chamberlain, patched on her chest -- Alexis sat in the cockpit with each of her family members and her friend, Kyle Merritt, posing for a picture with her one at a time.
Merritt, a bartender at Ed's Southern Food and Spirits, waited on Alexis and her grandmother, Sherry Arnette, almost two months ago. Merritt, 22, said Alexis could not stop staring at him because she thought he was the lead singer of Maroon 5, Adam Levine.
But Merritt also felt connected with Alexis in another way, too. His mother, Dawn Merritt, currently has breast cancer.
"She's 7 years old and has cancer, and she's going through chemotherapy" he said. "My mom's 54 and is going through chemotherapy. It beats her down, but she's 7 years old and won't give up."
Merritt contacted his friend, Nola Billups, with human resources at Seymour Johnson to possibly set up a surprise for Alexis. He said base officials agreed to have Alexis be a "pilot for a day."
Capt. Andy Lawler with the 334th Fighter Squadron said he was asked by the base to help organize the event. He accepted.
So on Wednesday afternoon, Lawler led Alexis up the step-ladder to the jet, he held her hand as they walked under the wings and he posed with her for pictures.
Airmen with the squadron gave Alexis wings for her flight suit and handed her a shirt that read, "Eagles 334 AMU."
They even asked Alexis to call out, "Once an Eagle...." She did, and the airmen responded in unison with, "Always an Eagle!"
Alexis' grandmother held back the tears as she watched her granddaughter do something she deserved to do and remembered why she was able to do it.
She said she and Alexis went to Ed's those months earlier to eat macaroni and cheese -- one of Alexis' favorite foods since taking the steroids from chemotherapy. They then met Merritt, or Adam Levine, as Alexis still looks at him.
"I think that it is such an honor, that if anybody deserves a chance, she does," Arnette said. "She's a fighter. Through all the pain, the treatment, the sickness, she still carries hope. She's an amazing child."
Alexis' mother fought off tears as well as she held her 13-month-old daughter, Aeris Williams, and stood beside her husband, Allen Williams.
She recalled the day she heard the diagnosis.
"I was not prepared," she said. "I was like, 'No, this can't be true.' It was an overwhelming fear and disbelief."
"She's had a really rough time, and she has been in a lot of pain and not felt well. But she's a fighter."