[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16342]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 COMMEMORATING THE LIFE OF KEVIN MASON

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ROBERT HURT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 21, 2015

  Mr. HURT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, Representative Ben Ray Lujan of 
New Mexico and I submit these remarks to commemorate the life of Kevin 
Anderson Mason, who passed away October 1, 2015 at age 44.
  Mr. Mason--a native of Altavista, Virginia, who resided with his 
family in Clovis, New Mexico--was working in Afghanistan as a civilian 
contractor. On the evening of October 1, 2015, shortly after taking off 
from the Jalalabad Airfield in Afghanistan, a terrible tragedy occurred 
when a C-130J crashed, killing six United States airmen and five 
civilian contractors, including Mr. Mason.
  Mr. Mason was a 1990 graduate of Altavista High School and honorably 
served in the United States Air Force for ten years. He will forever be 
remembered by his classmates, teammates, and members of the Altavista 
community as a warm, welcoming, kindhearted man. Mr. Mason was a star 
member of Altavista High School's basketball team, and school principal 
Ty Gafford and coach Dean Hubbard remember him fondly as a cornerstone 
of the Altavista community. He left behind a wife of nineteen years, 
Tammy, who he met while stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, 
New Mexico, and their three sons, KJ, Brandon, and Devin, all of whom 
currently reside in Clovis.
  We are forever grateful for Mr. Mason's years of service in the U.S. 
Air Force and his continued service and sacrifice in defending our 
nation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Mason family, the 
Altavista and Clovis communities that mourn his loss, and with all of 
the families who lost loved ones in this tragic incident.

                          ____________________