Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

Staff Sgt. Anissa Shero, a West Virginia native, was the first female airman to die in Operation Enduring Freedom. The 31-year-old loadmaster was killed June 12, 2002, when her MC-130H Combat Talon II crashed during takeoff. Shero also is thought to be the first female aircrew member killed while flying a special-operations mission. An investigation of the crash revealed the plane was carrying too much weight.

Shero had married fellow MC-130H loadmaster Staff Sgt. Nathan Shero nine months earlier. The two met in 1997 at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., where they were stationed.

They decided to volunteer for a special-operations assignment at Hurlburt Field, Fla., where both were assigned to the 15th Special Operations Squadron.

Loved to fly

Nathan Shero said his wife was proud to be one of the few enlisted airmen who fly, and that as a member of an MC-130 crew, she had one of the most challenging jobs.

“You really have to love flying,” Nathan Shero told Air Force Times in June 2002. “It’s rough back there.”

The Associated Press on June 14 reported that Nathan Shero told the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail he was angry that the Defense Department released Anissa Shero’s name and her unit.

He also said he rebuffed requests from morning news shows because he questioned whether the media were interested in his wife’s story because she was a special-operations member killed in action or because she was a woman.

First Lt. Tamara Archuleta was the co-pilot of an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter that crashed March 23 while going to pick up two injured Afghan children who were to receive medical treatment at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

An investigation board could not determine why the helicopter crashed, but said bad weather and difficult nighttime refueling maneuvers close to the ground were factors.

Archuleta was going to be married that June. According to The Associated Press, Archuleta, whose survivors include a son, had corresponded with a third-grade class in Georgia near Moody Air Force Base, where she was assigned to the 347th Rescue Wing, during her deployment.

The Associated Press reported Archuleta’s last package of letters to the students, which arrived two weeks before her death, contained 13 letters and a flag that had flown during a mission over Uzbekistan.