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Pentagon has released the name of the airman who was killed by an improvised explosive device March 15 while working with a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He is SSgt. Timothy Bowles. Born in Anchorage Alaska, Bowles grew up on Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., where his father was stationed, according to an Air Force release. He was a fire truck mechanic assigned to the 3rd Logistics Readiness Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, who was serving since last November with the 755th Air Expeditionary Group’s Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team. The IED destroyed the vehicle that he was in while part of a four-vehicle patrol checking on a local school. “The 3rd Wing and all of Team Elmendorf feel the pain of losing Sergeant Bowles,” said Col. Richard Walberg, vice commander of the wing. Walberg added, “He was always ready to go beyond what was merely expected of him. In fact, on [March 15], he filled in for a comrade who was not feeling well.”
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.