Air Force Master Sgt. Patrick D. Magnani

Died September 4, 2007 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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38, of Martinez, Calif.; assigned to the 31st Medical Support Squadron, Aviano Air Base, Italy; died Sept. 4 in Gardez, Afghanistan, in a non-combat-related incident.

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Martinez airman killed in Afghanistan; death under investigation

The Associated Press

MARTINEZ, Calif. — An Air Force master sergeant died in Afghanistan as a result of a non-combat-related incident that remains under investigation, the Defense Department said.

Patrick Daniel Magnani, 38, died Sept. 4 near Bagram. The biomedical technician had been in Afghanistan since July with the 31st Medical Support Squadron from Aviano Air Base, Italy.

“He died in the service of his country,” his mother Jeanne Magnani said. “He was very happy about what he was doing.”

The airman’s family remembered him as an avid world traveler who still made time to be with his loved ones.

In 1994, Magnani was stationed at Beale Air Force Base north of Sacramento when his older brother became a quadriplegic as a result of a vehicle accident. Magnani routinely came to Martinez to help him recover.

“It was amazing,” Michael Magnani said. “You need family when something like that happens.”

Magnani enlisted in the Air Force in 1987, after graduating from College Park High School and spending a year at Diablo Valley College. In early 2005, he served in a war zone for the first time, spending about five months working in a military hospital in Baghdad.

The Air Force is posthumously awarding Magnani the Meritorious Service Medal, his family said. In an e-mail sent Sept. 4 from Italy to the Magnani family, Patrick Magnani’s commanding officer praised the airman’s work.

“Pat was a true professional, a model airman,” Lt. Col. Troy McGilvra wrote.

In addition to his parents and two brothers, Magnani is survived by his sister Katie Park, of Omaha, Neb.

Funeral arrangements are pending.