A Bit Of A Personal Story

[Catch22]

Yesterday my friend and I were talking about fighter jets as a CF-18 overflew my house and the stadium my friend was at to watch a hockey tribute/tribute to soldiers. He mentioned that his parents had owned a resort in British Columbia, and while they owned it a USAF fighter pilot had come and stayed there on his way to Alaska. He had his flight suit and helmet with him, and allowed my friend and his brother to wear them. His name was Eric Das. The photo is attached, and my friend is the one in the helmet. I was going to post it here to see if anyone had any information about him, but I did a quick google and sadly found this:

Although Air Force Maj. William Watkins and Capt. Eric Das, were aboard an F-15E Strike Eagle jet fighter that went down in Iraq around 7:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, April 6, the U.S. military refused to designate the two airmen missing in action (MIA).
Military representatives met the next day with the families of Maj. Watkins and Capt. Das and told them that the "pilots whereabouts were unknown."
On April 18, 2003, the Pentagon said the remains of missing F-15E pilot Capt. Eric B. Das had been recovered and identified and that his status was changed from missing to killed in action.
The search for the plane's weapons system officer was continuing, it said.
The Pentagon provided no details on when or how his remains were recovered. It said the whereabouts of the other crew member, whose name the Pentagon had not released publicly, is still unknown.
It was unclear April 18, whether only one set of remains was found at the crash site or whether additional remains were found but had not yet been positively identified.
The fighter jet was reported to have been shot down near Tikrit, although the Pentagon has never publicly confirmed that.
Das' parents, Bruce and Rosie Das, issued a statement saying their son was killed on Sunday evening April 6, which was early Monday morning in Iraq. They said he was on a bombing mission in an F-15E Strike Eagle over northern Iraq when the plane went down under undetermined circumstances.

Eric Das

Sadly, he was KIA over Iraq in April 2003. My friend said he was a really nice guy too. Not really personal to me in the sense that I've never met him, but it still hit pretty close to home and was really unexpected. I don't know why, but when I searched his name it never dawned on me that he may have been killed.

RIP

 

[Njaco]

Catch, don't know what to say except

 

[Capt. Vick]

Wow, that is a moving story... Sad...

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Same here Catch.

 

[Matt308]

Amen. God bless his soul.

 

[Wildcat]

 

[FLYBOYJ]

 

[B-17engineer]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Brave men, sad story

 

[Gnomey]

 

[Glider]

He was obviously one of the best. A great loss

 

[ToughOmbre]

RIP

TO

 

[FLYBOYJ]

The old CO of the 306th FTG (who I indirectly worked for) knew him. He too flew F-15Es.

 

[Thorlifter]

That's a shame

 

[timshatz]

Pretty cool guy. Let the little guy where the helmet. Nice dude. Sad he died, but thanks for telling us the story. It was a good one.

 

[Catch22]

Thanks for the comments guys.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

 

[RabidAlien]

 

[Wayne Little]

.....RIP