Eric B Das
Profile
Age: 30
From: Amarillo, Texas
Assigned to the 333rd Fighter Squadron based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.
Incident: Air Force Capt. Eric B. Das was killed when the F-15E he was piloting went down during a combat mission in Iraq. The incident remains under investigation.
Died: April 07, 2003
When Eric Das was a kid, growing up in Amarillo, Texas, he had a game he’d play.
“Whenever an airplane flew overhead, he’d point up and say, ‘Coach, do you know what kind of plane that is?’ ”Jim Langdon, who coaches track at Amarillo High School, recalled. “I’d say, ‘No.’ Then he’d tell me. He knew every kind of plane that flew in the sky.”
Das, 30, died April 7, piloting an Air Force F-15E that went down during a combat mission over Iraq. He was listed as missing until April 18, when the Air Force announced that his remains had been identified. People who knew him say two things stand out about his life: He always wanted to be a pilot, and he openly professed his Christian faith.
Das is the son of missionaries. He was born in the Netherlands, when...