Wash. Airmen Killed In Crash Honored At Memorial Service

SPOKANE - Four Washington-state airmen killed in a military-tanker crash in Germany paid the ultimate price for freedom for a grateful state and nation, Gov. Gary Locke and other dignitaries said in solemn tributes yesterday.

Flags, flowers and photos of the airmen, one of them from Bellevue, decorated the Spokane Opera House stage at a public memorial service attended by more than 2,500 military members and civilians.

Maj. David W. Fite, 41; Maj. Matthew F. Laiho, 40; Capt. Kenneth F. Thiele, 31; and Tech. Sgt. Richard G. Visintainer, 48, died Jan. 13 when their Washington Air National Guard KC-135 tanker crashed near Geilenkirchen Air Base in Germany.

Fite, the Bellevue man, was the plane's pilot. The others were from Spokane. All had formerly served in the Air Force. They were members of the Guard's 141st Air Refueling Wing, based at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane.

Locke, commander-in-chief of the Washington National Guard, thanked the victims' families for the state and nation.

"They risked and lost their lives not just to keep America free but to push back the frontiers of tyranny in Bosnia and Iraq and in any other corner of the earth that they might be called to," Locke said. "They stand as examples of Americans who lived and died for freedom."

The airmen died while returning from a NATO refueling mission during a temporary assignment to Germany.

Each of the airmen posthumously received the Air Force's Meritorious Service Medal, which members of their squadron affixed to enlarged photographs of the men. They previously had been given the National Guard's Meritorious Service Medal and Cross of Valor.

In a symbolic gesture, flight crew members of the Guard's 116th Air Refueling Squadron removed from their uniforms insignia bearing an ace of spades and dagger and placed the patches in a bowl to be given to the victims' families.