Communities across the country are mourning the loss of six American
airmen killed Monday when a suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked their
patrol near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Here's a look at those who were killed:
Adrianna Vorderbruggen
Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen, 36, of Plymouth, Minnesota, was assigned
to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Elgin Air Force
Base in Florida.
As a gay service member, Vorderbruggen was a strong advocate against the
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibited gay and lesbian service
members from openly serving in the military. The policy was repealed in
2011.
One year later, Vorderbruggen married her partner, Heather Lamb. Vorderbruggen, 36, leaves behind her wife and young son, Jacob.
“It is important to us that she be remembered first as an Air Force
officer, loving mother, wife, daughter and sister, above all else, not
primarily by her sexual orientation," Lamb told The New York Times.
Peter Taub
Staff Sergeant Peter Taub, 30, of Philadelphia, was a member of the Air
Force Office of Special Investigations. Taub’s family runs Bub and Pops
sandwich shop in Washington, D.C., a lunch favorite of ABC News
staffers.
The restaurant posted a sign on its door reading, “Yesterday six members
of our armed forces were killed in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber on a
motorcycle. One of those members was Air Force Staff Sergeant Peter
Taub. Pete was Arlene’s son and Chef Jon’s brother. We will be closed
until future notice to mourn this horrible loss.”
ABC station WPVI in Philadelphia reported that Taub’s family was not
aware he was in Afghanistan when they received word he had been killed.
Taub had told family members he was deploying to Saudi Arabia,
apparently because he did not want his father and pregnant wife to worry
about his safety.
Joseph Lemm
Technical Sergeant Joseph Lemm, 45, was also a veteran NYPD detective.
At the New York Rangers game Tuesday night, there was a moment of silence for those killed, and Lemm's photo was flashed across the screen.
New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton released a statement Monday
night, saying Lemm “epitomized the selflessness we can only strive for:
putting his country and city first.”
Lemm, who was from the Bronx, was deployed three times: twice to
Afghanistan and once to Iraq. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
Louis Bonacasa, Michael Cinco and Chester McBride
The other airmen who were killed are Staff Sergeant Louis Bonacasa of
Coram, New York; Staff Sergeant Michael Cinco of Mercedes, Texas; and
Staff Sergeant Chester McBride from Statesboro, Georgia.
The bodies of the six airmen will be received at Dover Air Force Base Wednesday in a dignified transfer ceremony.
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