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A3C Michael S. Bell (Unit Historian)
to remember
Melendez Sanchez, Luis M., SSgt.
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Contact Info
Home Town Bayamon, PR
Last Address Ras Siyyan, Djibouti Gulf of Aden
Date of Passing Feb 17, 2006
Location of Interment Puerto Rico National Cemetery (VA) - Bayamon, Puerto Rico
Staff Sgt. Luis M. Melendez Sanchez
33, Bayamon, Puerto Rico
U.S. Air Force
Gulf of Aden [nr. Ras Siyyan]
Non-Hostile - Helicopter crash
1st Communications Squadron, Langley Air Force Base, Va..Killed when two CH-53 helicopters crashed near Ras Siyyan, northern Djibouti, while flying a training mission in the Godoria Range area.
1st Communications Squadron Military Times Link W.Post Link
Other Comments:
1ST COMMUNICATIONS SQUADRON, LANGLEY AFB, VA
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Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis M. Melendez Sanchez
Died February 17, 2006 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom
33, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico; assigned to the 1st Communications Squadron, Langley Air Force Base, Va.; deployed to Djibouti as part of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa; killed Feb. 17 when two CH-53 helicopters crashed into the Gulf of Aden in the vicinity of Ras Siyyan, northern Djibouti, while flying a training mission in the Godoria Range area. Also killed were Marine 1st Lt. Brandon R. Dronet, Sgt. James F. Fordyce, Lance Cpl. Samuel W. Large Jr., Sgt. Donnie Leo F. Levens, Cpl. Matthieu Marcellus, Sgt. Jonathan E. McColley, Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Sovie, Capt. Bryan D. Willard and Air Force Senior Airman Alecia S. Good.
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/OEF - Horn of Africa
From Month/Year
October / 2002
To Month/Year
December / 2014
Description Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA) is the name of the military operation defined by the United States for combating militant Islamism and piracy in the Horn of Africa. It is one component of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which includes eight African states stretching from the far northeast of the continent to the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea in the west. The other OEF mission in Africa is known as Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara (OEF-TS), which, until the creation of the new Africa Command, was run out from the United States European Command.
The Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) is the primary (but not sole) military component assigned to accomplish the objectives of the mission. The naval component is the multinational Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) which operates under the direction of the United States Fifth Fleet. Both of these organizations have been historically part of United States Central Command. In February 2007, United States President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the United States Africa Command which took over all of the area of operations of CJTF-HOA in October 2008.
CJTF-HOA consists of about 2,000 service men and women from the United States military and allied countries. The official areas of responsibility comprises Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Seychelles and Kenya. Outside this Combined Joint Operating Area, the CJTF-HOA has operations in Mauritius, Comoros, Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
