Location: 1
Date: 10/10/2001
Rank: Master Sergeant
Branch: U.S. Air Force
Operation: Operation Enduring Freedom
Air Force Master Sergeant Evander Andrews, 36, was killed October 10, 2001, in a forklift accident while helping in the construction of an airstrip in the Persian Gulf emirate Qatar. He was the first U.S. military man to be killed in the Global War on Terror. Evander entered the Air Force after graduating from high school in the tiny central Maine town of Solon. He was assigned to the 366th Civil Engineer Squadron, from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. At Andrews’ funeral, held in Arlington National Cemetery’s stately Old Post chapel, Colonel Ken Shelton called the sergeant a man with a “behind-the-scenes style that was both sincere and heartfelt.” Shelton, who was Andrews’ former squadron commander, said he learned to recognize Andrews “by the soles of his boots and the back of his head,” as he could much more often be found working on heavy equipment than sitting in an office. “Leaders get involved – and Andy did,” Shelton told the about 150 family, friends and Air Force personnel who gathered for the service.
Family pastor Thomas Westall, a retired Air Force major, called Andrews a hero, prompting agreement from Andrews’ 9-year-old son, Ethan. “Yep, he is a hero,” the boy said in a small voice from the front row, where he sat with his mother, Judy, and three younger sisters, Leah, Courtney, and MacKenzie. Andrews’ headstone takes its place among the cemetery’s sea of white, precision-aligned granite slabs, reading “Operation Enduring Freedom,” the military’s name for its campaign in Afghanistan against those believed behind the September 11 terrorist attacks against New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon.