U.S. service member on vacation, among dead in Ethiopia

U.S. service member among 8 Americans killed in Ethiopia plane crash

CBS News
By DEBORA PATTA
March 12, 2019

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — New details are emerging about the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash Sunday, that claimed 157 lives. Eight of the dead were American, including two brothers and a U.S. service member on vacation.

At the crash site, CBS News witnessed unrestrained grief, as the mother of one of the flight attendants on board broke down. It couldn't be more miserable there, as the smell of death overpowers and bits of mangled wreckage are everywhere.

At the site, local investigators were joined by a team of American aviation experts who are searching for answers. In the U.S. another mother grieves her son Antoine Lewis, an American service member who was heading for Kenya on vacation.

"I will say that plane went down with him doing what he wanted to do most. As a mother, you just say he did what he loved to do," said Antoinette Lewis, his mother.
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Green Beret Soldier's Death in Kenya Under Investigation

Fort Bragg-based Green Beret dies while serving in Kenya
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
October 28, 2016

A memorial service for a 3rd Special Forces Group soldier is set for Saturday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, 11 days after his mysterious death while deployed to Kenya, according to his obituary.

Sgt. 1st Class Zachary Bannister, 33, was found dead of non-combat related injuries on Oct. 17, Maj. Christopher Foreman, a spokesman for 3rd Special Forces Group, told Army Times on Friday.

Bannister's remains arrived at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, on Thursday. The cause of his death is under investigation, Foreman said.

The Reynoldsburg, Ohio, native spent four years as a Marine from 2003 to 2007, then re-enlisted into Special Forces in 2010, according to a 3rd Special Forces Group release.

He did two deployment to Afghanistan, the release said, earning three Bronze Star Medals -- one with the combat "V" device -- and various other awards.
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Soldier shot by sniper while talking to wife

Love-sick soldier who phoned wife from the frontline killed by sniper seconds later who saw his mobile light up
Edward Juma Okoyo was in trenches in Somalia at night when he made call
Kenyan made daily calls to Doreen Magak who he married a month earlier
Sniper saw flickering of mobile screen and opened fire killing solider and other members of unit
His wife reveals the moment loving phone call ended and line 'suddenly went silent'
Daily Mail
By JULIAN ROBINSON
1 May 2014

A Kenyan soldier who called his wife while he was on the frontline was killed seconds later after a sniper saw the flicker of his mobile phone.

The marksman opened fire after seeing the screen from Edward Juma Okoyo’s phone light up at night as he was talking to Doreen Magak, the woman he had married just a month earlier.

Mr Okoyo was stationed in trenches with a number of other members of the Kenyan Defence Force in neighbouring Somalia when he decided to make a night time call home.

But the platoon commander was unaware that his actions had put him squarely in the crosshairs of a sniper who then shot him dead along with other members of the unit.

Now his 29-year-old wife has relived the devastating moment the line went silent as she was talking to her loved one.
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UK Soldier killed by machine gun accident

Soldier was shot dead by accident
This is Lancashire
June 6, 2013

A PROMISING young soldier was accidentally shot dead when his colleagues removed the barrel from a machine gun as it pointed directly at him, a court martial heard.

Fusilier James Wilkinson, aged 21, from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (2RRF), was killed by the negligence of his own men on a live firing exercise in Kenya, it is alleged.

His section commander, Corporal Colin Bell, had removed the barrel from a machine gun to inspect a stoppage when it fired off a round, shooting Fusilier Wilkinson in the neck.
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Bandits kidnap Catholic nuns in Kenya

Bandits kidnap Catholic nuns in Kenya
Story Highlights
Suspected Somalian bandits kidnap two Catholic nuns in northern Kenya

Abduction happened at Catholic mission in Kenyan town of El Wak

Area wracked by clashes among various clans
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Italy's foreign minister is working with Kenyan authorities to secure the release of two Italian nuns, who were kidnapped Monday by suspected Somalian bandits, according to the foreign ministry in Rome.

A Kenya Red Cross spokesman said the two Catholic nuns were abducted from the Catholic mission in the northern Kenyan town of El Wak, just over two kilometers (one mile) from the border with Somalia.
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