Air Force Capt. Eric B. Das

Died April 7, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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30, of Amarillo, Texas; assigned to the 333rd Fighter Squadron based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.; killed when the F-15E he was piloting went down during a combat mission in Iraq. The incident remains under investigation.

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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 his parents were working there. The family lived briefly near the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where Das watched planes fly overhead and people parachute from the sky. He eventually went to school there.

“He was the kind of kid who made coaching fun,” said Langdon, who remembers Das even though it’s been more than 10 years since he graduated and went on to the Air Force Academy.

After earning a degree in civil engineering and his wings, Das was stationed in Alaska. He met his wife, Nikki, 25, an Air Force first lieutenant, there. She was a sister of one of his pilot buddies. They met at the Officer’s Club. When the song, “Amarillo by Morning,” played, he asked her to dance. They married 18 months ago and were stationed in Kuwait in side-by-side tents — he as a pilot, she as an intelligence officer. “We’d eat together in the mess hall and he’d joke that he was buying,” she said.

“You have to have priorities in life, and Eric had them — God, family and country, in that order,” Nikki Das said. “He had a wonderful magnetic spirit. He had a fulfilled life, and he died doing the thing he loved. He was very patriotic. And our freedom is not free.”

— USA Today, Associated Press

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Pentagon says remains of missing F-15E pilot recovered

Associated Press

The remains of an Air Force pilot who had been missing since his F-15E fighter jet went down in Iraq on April 7 have been recovered and identified, the Pentagon said April 18.

The search for the plane’s weapons system officer is continuing, it said.

The pilot was identified as Capt. Eric B. Das, 30, of Amarillo, Texas. His status was changed from missing to killed in action.

The Pentagon provided no details on when or how his remains were recovered. It said the whereabouts of the other crew member, whose name has not been released publicly, is still unknown.

It was unclear Friday whether only one set of remains was found at the crash site or whether additional remains were found but had not yet been positively identified.

The fighter jet was reported to have been shot down near Tikrit, although the Pentagon has never publicly confirmed that.

Das’ parents, Bruce and Rosie Das, issued a statement saying their son was killed on Sunday evening April 6, which was early Monday morning in Iraq. They said he was on a bombing mission in an F-15E Strike Eagle over northern Iraq when the plane went down under undetermined circumstances.

“Eric is a son that exemplified what faith in Christ, honor and duty and a life of excellence meant,” the statement said. “His strong faith was an inspiration to our family, friends and his fellow servicemen, and to all who knew him.”

Das and his wife, 1st Lt. Nikki Das, were both deployed to the Persian Gulf for the Iraq war, the Das family said. They were married in Amarillo on Oct. 20, 2001, and lived in Goldsboro, N.C.

An Air Force spokeswoman, Maj. Linda Haseloff, said Das’ remains were found at the crash site, but she had no other information on the circumstances under which the remains were recovered.

Haseloff said the location was classified secret. She did not know when the recovery was made or by whom.