Friday, February 23, 2001

By Wayne Specht
Misawa bureau chief

Wayne Specht / Stars and Stripes A floral memorial for Staff Sgt. Benjamin G. Lufi lies next to a concrete post near where the airman died in an auto accident Sunday in Misawa, Japan.

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — It was a snowy January day when Benjamin Lufi, sans his fatigue coat and hat, stood in front of an F-16 fighter on a wind-raked portion of Misawa’s hardened aircraft shelter area.

"He was demonstrating he was the toughest guy on the block, that he could take on any challenge at any time," recalled Lufi’s commander, Lt. Col. Joel Malone of the 13th Fighter Squadron, during a memorial service held Wednesday in the Richard Bong Theater here.

Malone and more than 200 hundred 13th Fighter Squadron "Panthers" paused to pay tribute to Lufi, 25, a staff sergeant who died Sunday in an auto accident near the base.

A six-year Air Force veteran, Lufi hailed from Blountville, Tenn., and was a squadron weapons loader. But friends and co-workers remembered him for more than just arming fighter aircraft with the hailstones of war.

"He was a noble and gentle man who would take his shirt off his back for you," said Staff Sgt. Christopher McKeen. "He would just come up and talk to you. Lufi knew everybody on base; somebody you could talk to."

Chaplain James Tims remembered Lufi garnered spiritual strength reading Bible scripture.

"(But) he didn’t highlight a lot of scripture in his Bible," Tims recalled. "He drew smiley faces in his Bible saying ‘God loves you.’ "

Despite his youthful station in life, Malone said Lufi set goals for himself few his age and rank attain. A distinguished graduate of Misawa’s Airman Leadership School, he also earned the school’s military citizenship and communicative skills award.

He won numerous awards from the 35th Operations Group, and at the 35th Fighter Wing level, and won the prestigious Pacific Air Forces’ Lt. Gen. Leo Marquez Maintenance Technician of the Year award in 1999.

McKeen said Lufi always put a smile on the faces of those around him, and knew what to say.

"Someone once told me only the good die young, and he was definitely a good man," McKeen said.

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