USAF Tech. Sgt. Matthew Schwartz

34-year-old USAF Tech. Sgt. Matthew S. Schwartz, from Michigan, was one of three Air Force servicemen killed in action on 5th January 2012 when their vehicle struck an insurgent bomb in Shir Ghazi, Helmand.

Sgt. Schwartz was a bomb-disposal technician serving with the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron, FE Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. His family told local news that this was his sixth combat mission and that he had also served in Iraq. He had served in the US Air Force for 12 years.

Sgt. Schwartz leaves his wife, Jenny, and three daughters.

Also killed were: Senior Airman Bryan Bell and Airman 1st Class Matthew Seidler.

USAF Captain Nathan Nylander

USAF Captain Nathan Nylander, aged 35, was killed when an Afghan military pilot opened fire during a meeting at Kabul airport, his family told The Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois.

Captain Nylander, from Fairbury, Illinois  was a flight commander with the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing base in Kabul.

His wife and two sons and daughter live in Tucson.

US Air Force Academy professor, Phil Ambard

Major Ambard

US Air Force Academy professor, Major Philip D. Ambard, aged 44, was killed on Wednesday 27th April 2011 in an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was a foreign-language professor.

Major Ambard, from Edmonds, Washington, was serving with 460th Space Communications Squadron, based in Colorado.

Major Ambard, a fluent French and Spanish speaker, served as an instructor in both languages and was consistently rated as one of the top faculty members at the Academy.

In 2007, Major Ambard was sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages for a Ph.D. program at Denver University, which he completed in 2010. He was scheduled to return to the Department of Foreign Languages after a 365-day deployment to Kabul.