HUDSON, N.H. — The Pentagon on Wednesday released the names of two Air Force officers killed in the crash of their Bombardier E-11A electronic surveillance plane in Afghanistan, one of whom was a New Hampshire native.
They were identified as Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss, 46, of Yigo, Guam and Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf, 30, of Hudson, New Hampshire. Voss was assigned to Air Combat Command headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
Back in his hometown, residents mourned the loss of one of their own.
“Any other department in the entire town of Hudson will support them, we will do whatever it takes to help them, assist them and stand by them,” said Hudson Police Chief William Avery.
Phaneuf was an Alvrine High School graduate.
“I was briefed by one of my supervisors this afternoon that one of our younger officers knows who he is and went to high school with him,” said Chief Avery. “When someone is protecting our country, protecting the streets of our great country, we take it hard.”
Senator Maggie Hassan’s office released a statement saying in part, how devastated they are to here this. Their prayers are with their respective families.
The cause of Monday’s crash is under investigation, but officials have said there is no indication the plane was shot down.
"I'm pretty confident there was no enemy action involved. Aircraft mishaps happen," Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Wednesday at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
The remains of the two airmen were recovered from the crash site in Ghazni province by American forces on Tuesday.
McKenzie said that as far as he knows, the U.S. troops did not meet any resistance going to the site.
“The main resistance was from the weather, which was really significant back there,” he said, adding that “appropriate precautions” were taken in moving the recovery team to the site “because the last thing you want to do is have another mishap or have other people lose their lives in attempt to get up there.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.