The local community honored fallen airman SSgt. Daniel Fannin with a bronze plaque at AWACS Park, just outside the gate of Tinker AFB, Okla., earlier this month. “Everyone reassures me that Daniel won’t be forgotten, but nonetheless, it has been my biggest fear that he might be,” his wife Sonya Fannin said at the April 4 dedication ceremony, according to an Air Force release. Fannin and three other airmen were killed in an MC-12 Liberty crash near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, on April 27, 2013. He had already completed three tours deployed from Tinker as an AWACS and MC-12 system operator. “Memorializing Danny here in this public park, a place in which our civilian friends and family can visit and heal on their own time is truly special,” added his wife. The community of Del City, Okla., honored Fannin with the inscription “service before self” on the tail of an E-3 Sentry replica in the park as well.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.