State grieves with Cannon for lost airmen

In New Mexico we celebrate — and often take for granted — our U.S. military forces.

We turn out en masse for parades and fireworks displays. We jealously guard the budgets of our national labs, Air Force bases and Army missile range. We glance up at the flyovers.

And we don’t think twice when we see a vehicle with a Purple Heart license plate parked next to one with a Disabled Veteran plate down the row from one with a National Guard plate.

But there’s an unspoken risk and sacrifice that comes with having such a large and important military presence here — unspoken until a tragedy like the crash March 14 of a single-engine military aircraft near Clovis.

The training flight crash took the lives of Capt. Andrew Becker, 33, of Novi, Michigan; 1st Lt. Frederick Dellecker, 26, of Daytona Beach, Florida; and Capt. Kenneth Dalga, 29, of Goldsboro, North Carolina.

All were attached to the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon Air Force Base.

Col. Ben Maitre, the base commander, said, “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families and friends of those involved in this tragic accident.”

That’s especially true in Clovis, where Chamber of Commerce President David Robinson said, “Everybody here in Clovis knows somebody at the base.”

And it’s especially true in New Mexico, where everybody knows somebody with a tie to the military — whether it’s at Cannon, Holloman or Kirtland Air Force bases, White Sands Missile Range, Los Alamos or Sandia or the Air Force Research labs, the VA hospital, or veterans who made the choice and sacrifice to serve our nation and protect democracy.

New Mexico has more Medals of Honor awarded per capita than any other state, the highest per-capita casualty rates in World War II and a heavy toll in the Bataan Death March, 649 servicemen and women lost in conflicts from Korea to Afghanistan, and an estimated 172,500 veterans who call the Land of Enchantment home.

When there is a loss of a military life, the whole state grieves because it is not only close to home; it is home.

These latest losses make the unspoken risk and sacrifice endemic in serving in the military all too raw and all too real. New Mexico and the nation owe them, their colleagues and their families a debt of gratitude for their service.

— Albuquerque Journal