2 March 2011


Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden

From: Williamston, South Carolina
Age: 25
Unit: 48th Security Forces Squadron, 48th Mission Support Group, 48th Fighter Wing


U.S. Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden was standing outside of a bus at Frankfurt airport when a young man first asked him for a cigarette, then whether he was bound for Afghanistan.

When Alden answered yes, the 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian fatally shot him, point blank, in the back of the head, then stormed aboard the bus shouting "Allah Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great." He shot and killed Airman 1st Class Zachary R. Cuddeback, who was at the wheel, then shot and injured two others, German authorities said Friday.
Though he was from Indiana, Alden, 25, lived in South Carolina, where he met his wife. The couple recently had their second child, according to a report by ABC News' Indianapolis affiliate WRTV.

"The thing that I'm going to miss the most is being able to talk to him, being able to see him. It hurts even worse because he's got two children and they won't get to fully know him and what a great person he was," Nicholas Alden's brother, Joe, told WRTV.