A Veterans Day Thank You to Captain Jeremy Fresques

Captain Fresques grew up in Farmington New Mexico, a small rural town near the Four Corners. He was a star athlete and outstanding student and could have done anything in life. He was also a person who wanted to make a difference in the world, so upon graduation he was accepted to attend the United States Air Force Academy and began basic training in the summer of 1997. Following his graduation from the Air Force Academy in 2001, Jeremy volunteered for the hardest possible training in the Air Force following the academy, successfully becoming a Special Tactics Officer. Special Tactics Officers are an elite group of specialized operators with unique proficiencies in orchestrating and overseeing missions that combine air and ground capabilities. These operations can range from counterterrorism missions to large-scale humanitarian assistance initiatives, and they are often conducted in the most challenging and harsh environments. The training is intense to say the least, with one of the highest attrition rates (93%) of those who start not completing the training. The course involves two and a half years of rigor the average person could not even begin to contemplate including a hellish initiation to weed out all but the most dedicated, water survival, advanced parachute training, and advanced survival and resistance training. Only the toughest even start the training, and only those with limitless mental endurance and unwavering heart finish.

On May 30, 2005, Captain Jeremy Fresques of the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron was serving his first combat tour in Iraq when the Comp Air 7 aircraft he and three other Special Operations personnel and one Iraqi Air Force member were flying in, crashed in east central Iraq. The aircraft was a small highly modified propeller drive plane considered experimental and specially assembled during the Iraq War to be an unarmed aircraft used to patrol oil pipelines and other infrastructure targeted by insurgents. While performing a low pass, a landing, or perhaps an aborted landing, the aircraft impacted the ground near Jalulah, Iraq, killing Captain Fresques, three other U.S. soldiers, and an Iraqi army soldier instantly. A rescue mission was immediately launched, but there was little left of the aircraft. Captain Fresques was 26 years old and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

I knew Jeremy at the Air Force Academy. We weren’t close friends but I knew him well enough to speak to his character. He was the kind of person you would follow anywhere and trust unconditionally in the most dire of circumstances. Above all he had an indomitable spirit matched with an affable easy-going personality. Faith and friends were things he would never turn his back on, the personification of what we think of as a hero. His loss impacted me deeply, knowing the sacrifice faced by his family and his young wife to lose such a remarkable young man in the prime of his life. I keep a bracelet commemorating him in my bedside table as a reminder of the courage and sacrifice of those who have given all to keep us free. Thank you Captain Fresques, and thank you to all veterans who have sacrificed so much for our freedom. Always know you are not forgotten.