Airman 1st Class Caleb Shaner is seen sitting near the opening of an aircraft in the air in this undated photo. (Geschwindt Stabingas Ebling Funeral Home)
The Pennsylvania Air National Guard lost two airmen in unrelated, off-duty incidents a world apart on the first weekend of August, according to a Guard spokeswoman.
The 193rd Special Operations Wing paused operations Aug. 5 to remember Master Sgt. Elizabeth Lohrmann, 45, of Kingsley, Pa., and Airman 1st Class Caleb Shaner, 21, of Schuylkill Haven, Pa., wing spokeswoman Maj. Susan Penning said Friday by email.
Lohrmann, assigned to the 201st Red Horse Squadron, a civil engineering unit based at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., apparently drowned Aug. 3 while snorkeling off Chulu Beach, on the Pacific island of Tinian, said Penning and a Tuesday report in the Marianas Variety newspaper.
Shaner died early Aug. 2 from a fall from a building in Lancaster, Pa., Penning said.
“It is with a heavy heart that I report we lost two of our own this past weekend while off duty,” wing commander Col. Robert Noren said in a statement Penning provided Friday.
“In response to these tragedies, the 193rd Special Operations Wing stood down flying operations Aug. 5,” he said. “In addition, we currently have several chaplains and mental health team members available for support to assist Airmen who wish to talk.”
Elizabeth Lohrmann, 45, of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, died Aug. 3, 2025, according to the Wyoming County Press Examiner. (Instagram)
Lohrmann, a yoga instructor in civilian life, was on active duty with the 356th Expeditionary Theater Support Group on Guam and from there deployed to Tinian, Penning said.
Lohrmann was snorkeling with two other airmen when she became distressed, according to the Marianas newspaper, which cited Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands assistant police chief Simeon Manacop.
Her companions helped her to shore, called emergency responders at 2:46 p.m. and administered CPR until they arrived. Lohrmann was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. at the Tinian Health Center, according to the newspaper report.
Raeleigh Studio in Kingsley, Pa., mourned Lohrmann, an instructor there. She became a yoga instructor in 2017 and before arriving in Kingsley taught in York County, Pa.
“We will forever miss the light she brought to the studio,” reads a post on the studio’s website.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered flags in Susquehanna County flown at half-staff in Lohrmann’s honor because she died while deployed on active service.
Shaner was on a full-time temporary assignment with the 193rd Special Operations Maintenance Squadron in Middletown, Pa., Penning said. He was a crew chief assigned to an MC-130J Commando II called Chicken Joe, according to an obituary posted online by the Geschwindt, Stabingas and Ebling Funeral Home.
The Commando II flies clandestine, low-level missions inserting and extracting special operations forces and supplies and aerial refueling for special operations helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft, according to the wing’s website.
Shaner enlisted in the Air Force two months before graduating in June 2022 from Blue Mountain High School in Orwigsburg, Pa. He liked to ski and studied business management at Commonwealth University – Bloomsburg.
Lancaster police did not respond to email and phone requests Thursday and Friday for information about Shaner’s death.
