Relatives mourn Nellis airman who died in action

Jace Radke

Monday, Oct. 25, 2004 | 8:49 a.m.

Airman 1st Class Jesse Samek's relatives said they will always remember how proud he was to be a member of the 66th Rescue Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base.

"He loved that his job was to go on rescue missions and save people in this war-torn world," Samek's aunt, Molly Abshear, said. "He trained and studied hard to be a part of that unit."

Jesse Samek died Thursday after suffering critical injuries when the HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter he was in crashed while on a rescue mission in Afghanistan.

Samek, a 21-year-old flight engineer from Rogers, Ark., loved to be outdoors and loved to play sports, Abshear said.

"He loved all the St. Louis teams, and he's probably rooting for the (St. Louis) Cardinals right now," Abshear said. Her nephew, who was born in O'Fallon, Miss., didn't move to Arkansas until he was a teen.

Samek attended one year of college at the University of Arkansas and was an avid hunter and fisherman and played recreational hockey, Abshear said.

Samek was was dispatched late Wednesday night to evacuate an Afghani election official who had been accidentally shot in the arm by one of his personal security guards, said Lt. Col. Pamela Keeton, a spokeswoman with the coalition press information center in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Pave Hawk Samek was in crashed about 105 miles east of Shindand, Afghanistan, northwest of Kandahar, about 11 p.m. Wednesday after picking up the Afghani official. The two other airmen and the wounded Afghani official on the helicopter suffered non-life threatening injuries in the crash and were taken to a hospital at Kandahar Air Field, Keeton said.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, but the helicopter did not go down as the result of any kind of hostile action or combat, Keeton said.

"We lost a valuable member of our team and our Air Force family," Lt. Col. Steven Shepard, 66th Rescue Squadron commander, said. "Airman Samek will be missed, but his dedication and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

"Right now, our efforts are focused on providing support to his family, friends and squadron members."

Samek joined the Air Force in February and was assigned to Nellis and the 66th in June. About a month ago he was sent to Afghanistan as part of his first deployment.

Currently Nellis has about 300 airmen deployed around the world, including about 20 members of the 66th.

The 66th is a combat rescue group and has sent airmen and Pave Hawks around the world. It is one of six Air Force active-duty HH-60 rescue units and is one of the most deployed units at Nellis.

Samek is the second military member with a Nevada tie to be killed in Afghanistan since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Cpl. Matthew Commons, a Boulder City High School graduate, was killed March 4, 2002, in Afghanistan. Commons, a 21-year-old Army Ranger with the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, was on a mission to rescue a U.S. soldier captured by al-Qaida when he was killed.