Love story of Air Force couple that should have made national news

Today on Wounded Times began with a sad love story that ended too soon followed by ones with happier endings. There is no better story to spotlight today as a reminder of the men and women serving in Afghanistan risking their lives together than the story of Captains David and Dana Lyon. David was killed in Afghanistan and Dana escorted his body back home.

January 3, 2014

Air Force Wife Escorted Body of Husband Back Home

Fallen captain remembered as protector, athlete, loving husband
Marine Corps Times
Jeff Schogol
January 2, 2014

Capt. David Lyon, who died Dec. 27 in Afghanistan, had been with his wife, Capt. Dana Lyon, just days earlier.
(Courtesy of Pounds family)

Rick Pounds remembers the moment his daughter Dana found the man to spend her life with.

In 2008, she tried out for the Olympics as part of the Air Force team, but her javelin throw was just inches short of making the cut. She was inconsolable afterward — until her fiancee, David Lyon, comforted her by holding her, walking with her and helping her move through the pain.

“If my daughter would have given me the task of ‘go find me a husband anywhere,’ that’s who I would have picked,” Rick Pounds said in a Jan. 2 interview.

The two, both Air Force Academy graduates, did get married and both became Air Force captains. They were deployed to Afghanistan and were able to see each other this Christmas. Two days later, Lyon, 28, of Sandpoint, Idaho, was killed by a suicide car bomb.

Rick Pounds had to pause to collect himself before talking about how his widowed daughter escorted Lyon’s flag-draped transfer case to the U.S.

“She got to fly back, right beside him, all the way home,” he said.