In Memoriam

[Grace]

#15

6 August 2011

US Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Kraig M. Vickers, from Hawaii, was killed in action on 6th August 2011 when the helicopter he was in was shot down by enemy forces in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

The 36-year-old was an Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist and a Bomb-disposal technician serving with an East-coast based Navy SEAL unit.

From Fox News -

When he was a Maui High School football player, no one could match Kraig Vickers' intensity on the field.

But off the field? "You couldn't find a nicer guy," his former coach remembers.

"He played middle linebacker, so he was really smart, the quarterback of the defense; and when he put on his helmet, no one could match his intensity and aggressiveness," coach Curtis Lee told the Maui News.

Kraig Vickers had been a Navy Bomb Disposal Team member, his father, Robert Vickers, told the newspaper. He said his son would have turned 37 on Thursday before declining further comment on his death.

Kraig Vickers graduated high school in 1992.

He lived in Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife, Nani, who was pregnant, and their three children, his friend from childhood, Michael Labuanan, told the newspaper.

"I gravitated towards Kraig because of his easygoing personality and the drive to become the best person that he could be," said Labuanan in an email.

U.S. Rep Mazie Hirono released a statement Sunday, extending her "gratitude to Kraig Vickers for his loyal service to our country."

[Grace]

#16

6 August 2011

US Air Force Tech. Sergeant John W. Brown, from Tallahassee, Florida, was killed in action on 6th August 2011 when the helicopter he was in was shot down by enemy forces in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

The 33-year-old served with the USAF 24th Special Tactics Squadron, based at Pope Field, North Carolina.

Article from FSU news

[Grace]

#17

6 August 2011

US Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew W. Harvell, from Long Beach, California, was killed in action on 6th August 2011 when the helicopter he was in was shot down by enemy forces in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

The 26-year-old served with the USAF 24th Special Tactics Squadron, based at Pope Field, North Carolina.

From NBC, Los Angeles

[Grace]

#18

6 August 2011

US Army Specialist Spencer C. Duncan, from Olathe, Kansas, was killed in action on 6th August 2011 when the helicopter he was in was shot down by enemy forces in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

21-year-old Spc. Duncan served with the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion).

From NBC, Kansas City -

Over the weekend, we learned 21-year-old Spc. Spencer C. Duncan of Olathe, Kan., also was lost in the attack.

Duncan served as a door gunner on a Chinook helicopter which the Pentagon says was hit by rocket fire. He was a member of Bravo Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, based at New Century Air Center in Gardner.

Friends say Duncan joined the military in 2008 and had been in Afghanistan since late May. He was stationed at Forward Operating Base, Shank.

Duncan, a 2008 graduate of Olathe South High School, is survived by his parents, Dale and Megan Duncan, of Olathe and two younger brothers, one of which is serving in the United States Marine Corps.

There will be a candlelight vigil held for Spencer Duncan on Aug.10 at 8 p.m.

The vigil will be held at Blue Valley Baptist Church, on the corner of 151st and Antioch in Overland Park.

[Grace]

#19

6 August 2011

US Army Chief Warrant Officer Bryan J. Nichols, from Hays, Kansas, was killed in action on 6th August 2011 when the helicopter he was in was shot down by enemy forces in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

31-year-old CWO Nichols served with the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion).

From the Daily News.net -

Senator wants soldier to receive proper honor

By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

[email protected]

Years ago, Allen Schmidt served with Doug Nichols in the 388th Medical Logistics Battalion in Hays.

So Schmidt, a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, is going to do all he can to see that Nichols' son receives his due honor.

Chief Warrant Officer-2 Bryan Nichols, 31, who grew up in Hays, was one of the pilots aboard the U.S. Chinook helicopter that was shot down in Afghanistan last weekend. There were 30 U.S. troops on board, and it was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the war in Afghanistan.

Bryan Nichols, the youngest of Doug and Cindy Nichols' four children, grew up in Hays and graduated from Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in 1998.

Bryan Nichols had been living in the Kansas City area, but his parents still live in the Hays area, near Palco.

Also aboard the chopper was another former Hays resident -- Chief Warrant Officer-4 David Carter, whose family now lives in Colorado.

The remains of the 30 U.S. troops arrived Tuesday in the United States in Dover, Del., and Nichols' parents were there.

Doug Nichols is keeping Schmidt, now a Kansas state senator who returned to his hometown of Hays to live after retiring from the military, informed of the timetable of his son's arrival back home.

Schmidt said Doug Nichols said his son's body tentatively is expected to arrive in Hays sometime early next week, and Schmidt said he wants to be there to "honor his arrival at the airport."

"We want to find out what time his body is coming in," Schmidt said. "I don't care what time it is. If I know (the time), I'm going to be out there."

The Fort Hays VFW Post and the Hays American Legion both are planning to be on-hand to give tribute to Nichols.

Schmidt said he was glad Nichols' parents were able to make it to Delaware when the bodies of the U.S. troops arrived.

"It's a very solemn ceremony," Schmidt said. "An officer meets every single soldier that comes off the plane. It's something of great respect."

Schmidt said he expects numerous tributaries and memorials for Bryan Nichols.

"They never know when they're going to get that call, when they are going to have to sacrifice with injuries or even their life," Schmidt said. "Like Bryan -- a young man with such a promising future, a stellar member of society."

Longtime friends Sgt. First Class Seth Kastle and Capt. Jamie Schwandt of the U.S. Army Reserves have set up a memorial fund for Bryan Nichols' 10-year-old son, Braydon.

[Grace]

#20

6 August 2011

US Army Chief Warrant Officer David R. Carter, from Centennial, Colorado, was killed in action on 6th August 2011 when the helicopter he was in was shot down by enemy forces in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

47-year-old CWO Carter served with the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), based at Aurora, Colorado.

Article from the Aurora Sentinel

[Grace]

7 July 2011

San Diego Police Officer Jeremy Henwood, a US Marine Corps Reserve Captain who had been a police officer for four years, returned home from a grueling tour of duty in Afghanistan in February this year.

Officer Henwood joined the Marines in 1995 and deployed twice to Iraq. In Afghanistan's northern Helmand province, he led a company of 160 Marines. In November 2010, he led an 11-mile-long supply convoy for four days to a U.S. base in Musa Qala. His group struck about 15 improvised explosives and survived small-arms attacks.

Back in San Diego, on Sunday 7th July he was shot and killed during a routine patrol for no apparent reason. The decorated Marine from Bexar, Texas, was due for promotion to Major in September this year.

We have included Officer Henwood on this website as a tribute to his service in Afghanistan.