FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. — Amid all of the noise of this holiday weekend, it’s easy for some to forget its real meaning. But for others, like Colonel (Ret.) Brian Newberry, it takes him back to May 3, 2013.
“It was a day much like today, a very sunny day,” said Newberry. “I got a call early in the morning, heard a tanker had crashed, didn’t know it was ours.”
At the time, he was the Commander of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base. A KC-135, a refueling aircraft known as Shell 77, went down in the Middle East…