Two DEA special agents who lived in Prince William County were among three killed Monday when a military helicopter crashed on a narcotics mission in Afghanistan.
A DEA press release identified Special Agent Forrest N. Leamon, 37, of Dale City; Special Agent Chad L. Michael of Quantico and Special Agent Michael E. Weston of Washington, D.C., as the three victims from the Washington area killed in the crash.
The three were aboard a U.S. military helicopter that crashed Monday while returning from the scene of a firefight with suspected Taliban drug traffickers in western Afghanistan. The DEA agents were among 10 killed.
U.S. military officials said the crash was not believed to be the result of hostile fire.
A Leamon family spokesperson said Tuesday the family did not want to speak with reporters.
Leamon leaves behind his wife, Anna, who is four months pregnant. The two had been married for about a year, according to WUSA9 in Washington.
According to the DEA, Leamon became a special agent in 2002. He served at the Washington Field Division and in the El Paso, Texas, Field Division until 2002, when he joined a counternarcotics team in Afghanistan.
Michael, 30, graduated from DEA basic training in March 2004. He began his career with DEA in the Miami Field Division, and left there to join the counternarcotics team in Afghanistan in August of this year. He lived in Quantico.
The DEA called the loss of the three agents “devastating.”
“The DEA is an extremely tight family, and the death of these three brave agents is a devastating loss for us,” said Acting Agent Michele M. Leonhart. “No expressions of grief can adequately convey the depth of the collective sorrow that we feel for their loved ones.”
Bordell Spence, Leamon’s neighbor, said the news of his death was sad.
“I can’t begin to convey how they may be feeling right now, but it is just so sad,” Spence said.
Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser contributed to this story.
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