A California-based Air Force reservist hasdied overseas while supporting military efforts against the Islamic State group, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
Tech. Sgt. Anthony E. Salazar, 40, of Hermosa Beach, California, died Monday at an undisclosed air base in southwest Asia, according to a Defense Department news release. Military officials are investigating the circumstances of his death, which they described as a noncombat-related incident.
Salazar was a mechanical systems repairman, whose job was to ensure facility operations at an air base in the Gulf region that is supporting operations against Islamic State militants, said Col. Edward Sholtis, a spokesman for U.S. Air Forces Central Command.
Salazar was assigned to the 577th Expeditionary Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force Squadron, part of the 1st Expeditionary Civil Engineer Group and reporting to U.S. Air Forces Central Command. The unit’s headquarters is at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, but Salazar’s squadron is assigned elsewhere in the Gulf region, Sholtis said in an email to Air Force Times.
