Northwest Florida Daily News

Four lives mourned
   
Loved ones recall Hurlburt airmen who died in Iraq
   
By MLADEN RUDMAN
Daily News Staff Writer
   
HURLBURT FIELD-- Capt. Derek Argel's widow said her husband was tough to overlook, even in the crowded Destin nightspot where they met a couple of years ago.
   "He was six feet, six inches  and really shy. I guess we kind of did the eye-contact thing," Wendy Argel recalled.
   She had to introduce herself to him. Their courtship was interrupted about a week later when Derek went to combat controller school on the East Coast, but resumed when he returned.
   Wendy knew she had the right guy because the first time she went to his home, the air commando inundated her with photographs of his family.
   Heartbroken family members of the four Hurlburt Field air commandos killed earlier this week when their warplane crashed near Jalula, Iraq, shared some memories Wednesday.
   Three of the commandos, whose identities were released Wednesday, were attached to the base's 23rd Special Tactics Squadron.
   The fourth, Maj. William Downs, 40, was assigned to the 6th Special Operations Squadron, a 16th Special Operations Wing unit also at Hurlburt Field. Downs seldom used the name William, preferring Brian instead.
   Argel and Capt. Jeremy Fresques, 26, were special tactics officers and 26-year-old Staff Sgt. Casey Crate a combat controller with the Air Force Special Operations Command 23rd STS.
   Argel's wife said if she had any regrets, it was that Derek was deployed or on temporary duty somewhere for more than half of their almost two-year marriage.
   Wendy shifted from smiling at memories of her 28-year-old husband to tears and back again as she recalled the Air Force Academy graduate's life.
   He wore size 15 shoes.
   He loved to fish "any weekend that I would let him," she continued. "He's Mister Corny Poet."
   Wendy said she needed to endure her husband's death and push ahead to honor him and "Little Buddy," Derek's nickname for their 10-month-old, Logan.
   "We have a son. I can't fall to pieces," she explained. "Ups and downs, sure there'll be ups and downs."
   In Logan she plans to nurture Derek's memory, as well as her husband's prowess as an athlete. The combat controller was the captain of the academy's water polo team his senior year.
   Derek "was going to teach him to throw a ball. We were going to train him for the Olympics," Wendy said. "I have to be Mom and Dad now."
   Staff Sgt. Casey Crate, who called Spanaway, Wash., home, also was a combat controller.
   His mother, Linda Crate, told KOMO-TV in Seattle on Wednesday that she hoped the day would never come when "military people come to my door.
   "When I opened the door, I said, Oh, God. No.' "
   She added Casey didn't have to go to war. He put in his four years as an avionics technician but re-enlisted to become a special operator.
   Linda said her son was courageous, never worrying about surviving a mission.
   "He said, Mom, never fear, I have one more mission, I shall be home,' " she continued. "He'll be home, but not like we wanted him to be."
   Fresques and Downs were described by kin and friends as outstanding men who believed in God and country.
   Downs was a pilot at Hurlburt's 6th SOS. Its personnel advise and train foreign pilots and other aircrew, though the military hasn't specified why Downs was aboard the slender Iraqi warplane.
   The major was an elder at Fort Walton Beach's Westminster Presbyterian Church, said a fellow churchgoer who wanted to remain anonymous.
   Downs, a husband and father of three children between 8 and 11 years old, catered to the spiritual needs of young singles at the church.
   "He was a teacher. He had a real heart for missions," said the man. "He was a very dedicated family man. He had a heart for God."
   The love included Downs opening the door to his Shalimar home for Bible studies.
   In a different part of Okaloosa County, another family mourned while trying to shake the disbelief of losing one of its own.
   "Jeremy was a very good, strong, Christian man," said Fresques' father-in-law, Chuck Shaw. "We were all proud of him."
   Fresques had been married to Shaw's daughter, Lindsey, for about a year before the tragic mishap on Memorial Day. She's also a captain in the Air Force, though assigned to Eglin Air Force Base.
   Shaw lives in Houston but was at the Fresques home in Destin.
   "They had a very strong marriage," he added about the young couple's life.
   "He's sorely missed," Shaw said.
   The airmen and their Iraqi pilot took off from Kirkuk Air Base north of Baghdad in a Comp Air 7SL, a lightweight turboprop used for surveillance and transport of supplies or personnel. It crashed in eastern Diyala province, which borders Iran, during what was characterized by U.S. military spokesmen as a training flight.
   In the United States, Comp Air 7s are considered build-to-order aircraft because they're sold as kits. They're classified as experimental exhibition aircraft, according to the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wis.
   Seven 7SLs, each of which can carry up to six people, were given to the nascent Iraqi Air Force in late 2004 by another Middle Eastern country, United Arab Emirates, according to a story published in November by the American-run Multinational Security Transition Command -- Iraq.
   AFSOC plans to convene an accident investigation board to look into the mishap. Its findings become public record.