Migration News
Camp Eggers housing unit renamed in honor of fallen airman
Stars and Stripes
March 4, 2008
A plaque displaying Air Force Master Sgt. Randy Gillespie’s biography and awards is unveiled during a dedication ceremony March 2. It will be placed in the hallway of the newly-named Gillespie House. (Timothy Newborn / U.S. Navy)
A plaque displaying Air Force Master Sgt. Randy Gillespie’s biography and awards is unveiled during a dedication ceremony March 2. It will be placed in the hallway of the newly-named Gillespie House. (Timothy Newborn / U.S. Navy)
Air Force Capt. Jennifer Mack, left, Camp Eggers Morale, Welfare and Recreation office, sings the national anthem during a the dedication of a building named for Air Force Master Sgt. Randy Gillespie. (Robert Wollenberg / U.S. Air Force)
A housing unit for servicemembers at Camp Eggers, Afghanistan, has been named in honor of an airman who was mortally wounded by small-arms fire while training Afghan troops last year.
Air Force Master Sgt. Randy Gillespie, a fuels specialist assigned to Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., was an embedded training team senior mentor with the Afghan National Army 207th Corps at Camp Zafar in Herat, Afghanistan. In July, he was killed in action.
Now, officials said, his memory will live on with the building.
“Master Sgt. Gillespie lived the Air Force core value of service before self,” Maj. Gen. Robert Cone of Combined Security Transition Command — Afghanistan was quoted as saying at the dedication service.
“He took incredible pride in mentoring Afghan National Army personnel.”
A plaque with Gillespie’s biography, accomplishments and names of his family members was placed in what is now called the Gillespie House.
During the ceremony, Cone read a letter from Gillespie’s widow.
“He truly was a special man … and I so very much appreciate the remembrances and the tributes you are putting in place for him.”