The widow of an Alabama airman who died when a US refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq last week has described her family's 'world shattered' by the loss. Major Alex Klinner, 33, left behind seven-month-old twins and a two-year-old son, his brother-in-law James Harrill told the Associated Press.
Klinner was among six crew members aboard a KC-135 Stratotanker that crashed on Thursday during Operation Epic Fury, the US campaign against Iran. His wife, Libby, wrote on Instagram: 'On March 12, our world shattered. I'm devastated to lose the best person I know, the person that made everything more fun, my best friend.'
Klinner, an Auburn University graduate who was promoted to major months earlier, had been deployed for about a week when he died. His wife added: 'My heart is broken for our three kids who will grow up not knowing him. They won't see how goofy and funny he was. They won't witness his selflessness.'
The other airmen killed were Captain Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Washington; Technical Sergeant Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Kentucky; Captain Seth R. Koval, 38, of Indiana; Captain Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Ohio; and Technical Sergeant Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Ohio. US Central Command confirmed the crash involved two aircraft in friendly airspace and was not due to hostile or friendly fire.
A GoFundMe page set up for Klinner's family had raised over $1 million by Sunday. His sister-in-law, Sarah Rose Harrill, wrote: 'Alex was more than a serviceman. He was a devoted husband, a loving father, and the kind of person who would quietly step in to help anyone who needed it.'
