Officials at Nellis
AFB, Nev., on July 13 dedicated a refurbished Airmen’s Center to A1C Jesse Samek, who was killed in October 2004 in Afghanistan when his HH-60 helicopter crashed during a rescue mission. Samek, who was a flight engineer with the 66th Rescue Squadron at Nellis, was the first base airman to die in the war on terror. The Samek Airmen’s Center is a recreation facility near the dormitories housing junior enlisted airmen. Samek’s mother, Julia Samek, attended the ceremony and said: “He was a pretty quiet kid, but he would have been honored to have the building named after him. He would have had pride that he could make a difference; almost as much pride as I have, to have been his mother.” (Nellis report by A1C Michael Charles)
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.