SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- A tribute stands as a final salute during a memorial service at a deployed location here Jan. 26 to honor two fallen security forces Airmen from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton and Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy were assigned to the 379th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Strang)

SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- More that 200 people attended a memorial service at a deployed location in Southwest Asia for the two security forces Airmen killed in Iraq Jan. 22. In attendance were 40 other deployed members from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, home station of the fallen Airmen -- Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton and Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy. Joining members from the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing were British and Australian troops who came to pay their respects. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Strang)

Final Salute

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Airmen with the 379th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron mourn the loss of two fellow security forces Airmen, Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton and Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy, killed in action Jan. 26 in Southwest Asia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Strang)

Bomb killed Alaska airmen
IRAQ: Sgts. Jason Norton, Brian McElroy died in roadside blast.


By TATABOLINE BRANT and JULIA O'MALLEY
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: January 25, 2006)

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE -- A roadside bomb exploded in Iraq on Sunday, ripping a hole in the base police force here and shattering hearts all the way to Oklahoma.

The bomb, which detonated Sunday night about 18 miles north of Baghdad, blew apart an armored Humvee with three Elmendorf airmen in it.

Two of the men, Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton, 32, and Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy, 28, died from their injuries, leaving behind wives and children. The third, who has not been named, was flown to Germany for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries including burns, scrapes and a head wound.

Norton and McElroy were seasoned members of Elmendorf's police force, the 3rd Security Forces Squadron. Norton, a patrol and K-9 officer, had been stationed in Alaska since 2002 and worked alongside other police agencies in Anchorage responding to bomb threats against schools and airliners.

Julie Hellrung, a K-9 officer with Airport Police and Fire at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, watched Norton climb from handler to kennel master at the base and often sought his advice about dog training. She said Norton was smart, easy to talk to and always willing to share what he knew.

"You hear about soldiers killed in action and you think this is awful, but then when it's somebody you trained with, called and e-mailed -- it really hit home," she said. "It was just like a big empty hole. ... He was just a great person."

McElroy, who arrived at Elmendorf in April 2004, had recently moved from patrol to information security, where he was in charge of protecting the transmission and storage of classified military information, officials said.

An old friend who served with McElroy in Colorado said McElroy wasn't like the other guys he knew in the service, the ones who complained about their jobs and just wanted to put in their four years and get out.

"He loved being a cop," Chris Sauseda said. "He wanted to make it a career. He wanted to make rank and become like a chief. He loved his job. He loved every minute of it, helping people."

Sauseda said he didn't know McElroy was in Iraq until he heard from a friend in Chicago about the bomb.

"I'm just, like, no, this ain't right," he said. "It's just not right. Everyone makes fun of us cause we're in the Air Force -- (that the) Marines and Army are the ones that are over there. But here's my friend, he's in the Air Force and ... he was just a nice guy. It sucks."

The Air Force nationwide has been sending airmen to Iraq to support the Army, which is short on manpower in some jobs, according to Col. Scotty Lewis, vice commander of Elmendorf's 3rd Wing.

That's what Norton and McElroy were doing, he said, as was the other man Elmendorf has lost in the war: Airman 1st Class Carl Anderson Jr., 21.

Anderson, who died in August 2004, was riding in a convoy when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

All three airmen got special convoy training before going to Iraq, officials said. For Norton and McElroy, that included two months of joint Air Force-Army training at a base in the Lower 48 and additional Army weapons training in the Middle East before going to Iraq, said Lt. Col. Michael Halbig, chief of 3rd Wing public affairs.

Both men had been in Iraq for three months when they were killed. They were due home early this summer.

Norton's wife, Christina Norton, said her husband was devoted to their two children, a son, 7, and daughter, 8.

"He was the best father in the world," she told The Associated Press. "Family was his everything."

McElroy's family could not be reached. Military officials said he has a wife and a daughter and is originally from San Antonio.

Both men were well-respected by their peers in the 3rd Security Forces Squadron, a close-knit unit of 250 in which it is common for members to look after the children of those overseas.

Norton and McElroy both put in "fathering time" with children who temporarily needed a dad, said Chief Master Sgt. William Watson, the senior enlisted airman who oversees the squadron.

"For all of us, this hit home. These two were family," Watson told a crowd of reporters who had gathered on base Tuesday. "It was a very hard blow."

Lewis said the base is doing everything it can to take care of the two men's families. Watson said many people in his unit "emptied their pocketbooks" to help extended family members get to Alaska this week. There is to be a memorial at the base Friday.

Hellrung, the airport police officer, said when she talked to Norton's co-workers at the kennel on base, it was very emotional.

"It's going to leave a hole in their unit for a long time if not forever," she said.

The news went down hard in Norton's hometown, the 13,000-person community of Miami, Okla. City manager Michael Spurgeon said officials were working with the local American Legion to arrange an appropriate tribute for Norton, the first person from the town to die in the war.

"We want to extend our heartfelt condolences to his family," Spurgeon said. "We consider him to be a hero in our eyes."

As the Army, Air Force and Alaska National Guard here send more and more people to Iraq, death has become more of a reality for those left behind.

At least 18 service people with strong ties to Alaska have died in Iraq since the war began -- six of them this month.

"How are you supposed to get on with your life?" asked Danell Foster, an Air Force wife who owns a scrapbooking store just outside Elmendorf's Government Hill gate.

"There are a lot of people in the military, they respect their president and their employer, but they just question why are we there and when it's going to end," Foster said. "It's hard to see these young people getting killed and a lot of them don't understand why they're there."

A customer in the store, Julia Pulido, a mother of a 5-year-old, said her husband is serving in the same area where the airmen were killed. He has about six months to go overseas. She said she avoids the news because it makes her worry. She said her husband tells her it's mostly open desert wherre he is and that the major concerns are snipers and roadside bombs.

"I know it's good for the people there, and if I was in that situation I would want help too," she said. "I just don't want anyone to go over there and fear for their life. It's selfish, but I wish my husband didn't have to go. I think we've been there long enough."

Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton, 31, of Miami along with Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy, 28, of San Antonio, Texas, were killed Sunday, 1/22/06 when an improvised bomb exploded while they were on convoy-escort duties near Taji, 18 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq.

Norton's wife, Cristina, is a schoolteacher near the base in Anchorage, Alaska. She said her husband also leaves family members in the Miami area.

There will be a service held in Alaska Friday, 1/27/06. Plans for a memorial in Miami are pending.

Cristina said she had received many telephone calls from people expressing condolences, and that she was preparing an obituary for her husband for release on the Internet. She said college-education funds are being established for her children, and that contributions to the funds would be appreciated in lieu of flowers.

You can mail donations to:

Jason L. Norton Memorial Account
C/O Alaska USA Federal Credit Union
PO Box 196613
Anchorage , Alaska 99519-6613

and make checks or money orders payable to:

Cristina Norton

And insert in remarks section (where you normally put account numbers on bottom left of check) the statement:

"For the Jason L. Norton Memorial Account"

MIAMI, Okla. - A Miami man and another airman were killed Sunday when an improvised bomb exploded while they were on convoy-escort duties near Taji, 18 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq.

The U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday identified the victims as Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton, 31, of Miami, and Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy, 28, of San Antonio, Texas.

Both airmen were assigned to the 3rd Security Forces Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska.

Capt. Kelley Jeter, chief of external communications at Elmendorf, said Norton was "a military dog trainer. He was posthumously awarded with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star yesterday (Monday).

"He was distinguished in his military service, and he will be missed by his family as well as his unit."

Norton was part of the 586th Expeditionary Mission Support Group, which has duties that include security and transportation. Norton had been in Iraq since Nov. 11.

Norton joined the Air Force in March 1992. He had been stationed at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. He was assigned to Elmendorf in August 2002. He was promoted to technical sergeant in January 2005.

"He was on convoy duty in an armored Humvee when they hit an IED (improvised explosive device)," Jeter said. "It went off just as they were going over it. The blast was too strong. It killed two occupants in the Humvee and injured the guy on the turret."

Norton's wife, Cristina, is a schoolteacher near the base in Anchorage, Alaska. In a telephone interview Tuesday, she said she was planning a service for her husband in Alaska. She said her husband also leaves family members in the Miami area.

She said she had received many telephone calls from people expressing condolences, and that she was preparing an obituary for her husband for release on the Internet. She said college-education funds are being established for her children, and that contributions to the funds would be appreciated in lieu of flowers.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two airmen who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The airmen were killed Jan. 22, when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device while conducting convoy escort duties in the vicinity of Taji, Iraq.

            Killed were:

            Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton, 32, of Miami, Okla.

            Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy, 28, of San Antonio, Texas.

            Both airmen were assigned to the 3rd Security Forces Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska

I served with Jose Rivera from 93-96 Cco 2/325 AIR and was saddened to see his face on the 60 minutes program honoring our fallen soldiers. Although we weren't close it felt as if I had lost a brother that's how it is in the Army we are all brothers. My heart goes out to his family....may God bless you."

Jason Norton of Port Washington, WI USA