{"id":14620,"date":"2026-03-22T10:39:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T10:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/22\/watch-pilot-pays-tribute-from-the-sky-to-three-ohio-guardsmen-killed-in-refueling-plane-crash-in-iraq\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T10:39:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T10:39:44","slug":"watch-pilot-pays-tribute-from-the-sky-to-three-ohio-guardsmen-killed-in-refueling-plane-crash-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/22\/watch-pilot-pays-tribute-from-the-sky-to-three-ohio-guardsmen-killed-in-refueling-plane-crash-in-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Pilot pays tribute from the sky to three Ohio guardsmen killed in refueling plane crash in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-articlebody=\"1\">\n<div class=\"_s30J clearfix  \">\n<div class=\"MwN2O\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"T22zO\">\n<section class=\"D3Wk1  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  VtlfQ \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"D3Wk1\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"zPaFh\">\n<div class=\"wJnIp\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>An aviation enthusiast paid an emotional tribute to three members of the Ohio Air National Guard, days after they were among six service personnel killed in a refueling tanker crash in western Iraq.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"2\"\/>Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 shows a pilot paying a symbolic tribute in the sky on March 19, tracing the outline of a service member alongside three headstones honoring Ohio&#8217;s fallen guardsmen.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>According to US Central Command, Captain Seth Kowal, Captain Curtis Angst and Master Sergeant Tyler Simmons were part of the US government&#8217;s &#8220;Operation Epic Fury&#8221; on March 12 when the KC-135 aircraft crashed around 2 p.m. The military said the plane was lost while taking off over friendly airspace and the cause of the crash was being investigated.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>Also killed in the incident were Major John Alex Kleiner of Auburn, Alabama; Capt. Ariana G. of Covington, Washington. Savino; and Technical Sergeant Ashley B. of Bardstown, Kentucky. Pruitt. The Ohio National Guard and the 121st Air Refueling Wing later honored Kowal, Angst and Simmons, BBC News reports.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>In just 21 days of conflict, at least 16 military aircraft \u2013 12 drones and four aircraft, including THAAD radar systems, an F-35 stealth fighter jet and even the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier \u2013 were hit, although not all incidents were caused by direct enemy fire.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>In early March, three F-15 fighter planes were shot down in an &#8220;apparently friendly fire incident&#8221; over Kuwait, officials said. All six crew members were able to eject safely. Boeing built the KC-135 Stratotanker for the US military in the 1950s and early 1960s.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>It has been the backbone of the US military&#8217;s aerial refueling fleet, and allows fighter aircraft to carry out long missions without the need to land.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An aviation enthusiast paid an emotional tribute to three members of the Ohio Air National Guard, days after they were among six service personnel killed in a refueling tanker crash in western Iraq.Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 shows a pilot paying a symbolic tribute in the sky on March 19, tracing the outline of a service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1070,7138,311,709,1406,639,889,309,308,3289,640,1136],"class_list":{"0":"post-14620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-crash","9":"tag-guardsmen","10":"tag-iraq","11":"tag-killed","12":"tag-ohio","13":"tag-pays","14":"tag-pilot","15":"tag-plane","16":"tag-refueling","17":"tag-sky","18":"tag-tribute","19":"tag-watch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14622,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620\/revisions\/14622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}