Deployed firefighters induct fallen teammate into "Department of Heroes"

Published Feb. 16, 2011
By Master Sgt. Mike Hammond
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The overhead radio crackled to life. "Firefighter Kozorosky, fire dispatch." Five seconds of silence passed, and the radio again sounded the call, "Firefighter Kozorosky, fire dispatch." Again, there was no answer. After the third unsuccessful attempt, mayday tones sounded in the fire station at this deployed location - the final alarm for Senior Airman Derek Kozorosky.

At precisely 8 a.m. Feb. 16, at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, members of the 379th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Protection Flight began a memorial ceremony for Airman Kozorosky, who died Feb. 11 following a vehicle incident at Kadena Air Base, Japan. The cause of the incident is currently under investigation.

The 379th ECES counts six deployed members who knew and worked with the deceased Airman at their home station of Kadena. A seventh teammate, Master Sgt. Stephen Patch, flew in from a deployed location in Afghanistan just hours before the ceremony to join the team in remembering one of their own.

The ceremony here was timed to exactly coincide with the memorial service held at Kadena, which is six hours ahead of this location.

"The first thing people will tell you about this young man is how they knew him," said Senior Master Sgt. Elliott Smith, 379th ECES fire chief, during the memorial ceremony. "Simply enough, Derek Kozorosky was known as 'Koz.' His humble Pennsylvania nature and humor left us not enough time in the day to say his whole last name, for we were too busy with gut-busting laughter and endless dinner conversations that usually followed the lines of some unforeseen topic."

"Prior to his short military career, he was marked as a hard worker -- constantly striving for perfection on the ball fields, on the construction site, and in the work place," Sergeant Smith said. "For the three years of honorable service to our country, Koz knew he was part of something bigger, and it showed every time he put on this uniform."

Sergeant Patch, who served as assistant chief of operations for the 18th Civil Engineer Squadron fire department at Kadena before deploying to Afghanistan, described Airman Kozorosky as a "standout firefighter" who was ready for additional responsibilities.

"His performance and attitude led to us sending him to advanced training school [Emergency Medical Technician training] while he was only halfway through his upgrade training," Sergeant Patch said. "That is pretty much unheard of - we normally don't send them until they are through training. But people from the top down in our organization just saw something in him. He was the epitome of a good young firefighter."

After the final alarm sounded for Airman Kozorosky, the radio crackled to life once more with a final report from dispatch.

"Chief one, fire dispatch," called the fire chief's radio.

"Go ahead, dispatch," the chief said.

"There is no answer from firefighter Kozorosky. He has been reassigned to the 'Department of Heroes.'"