Technical Sergeant Sean M. Corlew, 37, of Thousand Oaks, Cal. was assigned to the 16th Special Operations Wing, Hurlburt Field, Fla. He died June 12, 2002, while on a mission to exfiltrate a three-person US Army Special Forces Team. They quickly uploaded the team and thousands of pounds of equipment. The aircraft’s engines, however, could not maintain enough thrust and it crashed shortly after take-off in the Paktika province of Afghanistan.

As a child TSgt Corlew was fascinated with flying. He played with toy planes and read aviation books, and as a teenager took a job at a Southern California airport to be near airplanes. A graduate of Newbury High School, he enlisted in the Air Force in 1985 at age 19. He was on his second assignment in Afghanistan, having spent several months there after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

”There were two things important to him: flying and his family,” said his father. ”He just joined and wanted to fly. Whatever he could do to be near a plane, he did it,”

TSgt Corlew was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honor and family and friends in attendance.

TSgt Corlew is survived by his wife, Amy and children, Preston and Maranda.