In Memoriam

Dan loved two things: flying and hockey. I remember meeting him in colorado springs after he finished UPT telling us how great it was to be in the air. He really got us pumped up for graduatiing the following year and following his lead. God bless him and his family.

I had the honor of performing the Missing Man at DJ's Memorial service in Minneapolis - we staged out of Duluth ANGB and it was cold. DJ's father wrote me a letter that I still have - if anyone knows if he is still around please have him contact me.

Dano

I met DJ in Turkey in 1988 while he was stationed in Spain. My father flew F-16's and DJ wrote that he admired men like my Dad, flying and dying in their jobs. His favorite song at that time was the Eagles, "Take it to the Limit".

He was a great American hero and I still miss him.

He told me that people walk around looking down...that they should look up. that the sky and limitless possiblities were waiting for them. I've never forgotten that and always try to remember to look up...

I met DJ in Spain in 1987, when my husband David was stationed there. DJ was one of those special young guys that older squadron wives loved to "adopt" and who always made people smile. My husband David was killed in Jan 1988 during a training mission at Torrejon. DJ was one of the dynamic group of young lieutenants in Dave's squadron when it happened. When I came back a year later and brought my new son to meet the "boys in the squadron", and have a sip of Jack Daniels together, DJ held my son in his arms in the ready room at the base, and came to the baby shower to celebrate David's baby, born 8 1/2 months after David was gone. When my friend called me in March of 1989 to tell me that we had lost DJ in an aircraft accident too, it was a familiar pain. But there was some comfort too. That comfort was the thought of DJ, sitting at a fighter pilot bar in the sky with David, telling him about his baby son...weird, huh? But I can smile about them both, David and DJ, when I think about it. I like to think they are smiling back...