As an officer and a teacher, Lt. Col. Camilo Guerrero was a role model for cadets at the Air Force Academy. Cancer made him an inspiration, as well.

Guerrero – a 1996 Air Force Academy graduate – died March 6 after a two-year battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Jayne Buchholz and his three sons, Chay, Theo and Adan.

Instead of retiring from active service after his November 2015 diagnosis, Guerrero fought to stay in the Air Force. He explained why in a video shortly before his death.

“I take a lot of pride in what I do there,” Guerrero said in the video. “I take a lot of value of who I am by what I get to share with the cadets and what I get to learn from the cadets through those special 53 minutes we spend in a classroom in Fairchild Hall.”

After his diagnosis, Guerrero took that perspective to San Antonio for his medical evaluation board – where the Air Force would decide if Guerrero could still serve with cancer.

“I had an opportunity to share my story, to explain what intrinsically motivated me to spend whatever time I have left at the United States Air Force Academy serving those who I want to serve,” he said in the video.

Shortly after the San Antonio meeting ended he was told he was fit for service and could continue teaching cadets at the academy.

Guerrero taught a core leadership class, which is where many cadets first met him.

Several of his students spoke about him following his funeral at the academy cemetery on Monday.

“I only interacted with him 15 times,” said junior David Bartholomew. “The impact he made in those 15 classes is an impact no other teacher has made on me.”

“He made it seem like you were the most important thing in his life at that moment and nothing else mattered,” he said.

Other cadets nodded in agreement.

“He taught us how to be a good man and a good woman and how to just genuinely be a good person,” Bartholomew said.

Junior Mai-Lin Quinto remembered the day that Guerrero told her class about his having cancer.

“I was shocked,” she said. “It is crazy how things like that can happen to such great people.”

Senior cadet Kristin Mason shared that when she met Guerrero she was dealing with her own struggles, but Guerrero’s positive outlook gave her perspective.

All the cadets talked about how Guerrero cared about their personal lives.

“At the beginning of every class he would ask for our ups and downs. He would genuinely care, he would remember,” said Mason. “He remembers all of his cadets.”

Family, friends, colleagues and cadets attended a service at the Air Force Academy Chapel on Monday to remember Guerrero.

One colleague argued that Guerrero was someone who could make death rattle in his boots.

One friend said that Guerrero was the friend he didn’t even know he needed.

His eldest son, Chay said, “Everything happens for a reason.”

“Two years ago, my life changed. Some would say that it would be a negative thing to be found out that you had cancer,” Guerrero said in the video. “I argue it was a blessing.”