TSGT John W. Brown & TSGT Daniel L. Zerbe, Air Force Medic’s KIA 06 AUG 2011 AFGHANISTAN

Tech Sgt’s Brown and Zerbe were Air Force Medic’s who were serving on the Helo that went down.

It is hard to get exclusive stories on each as every story printed is about all 30 of those lost.

TSGT John W. Brown KIA 06 Aug 2011

John W. Brown
If Elizabeth Newlun wanted to have a serious conversation with her son, John Brown, she had to shoot baskets with him.

“There’s nothing athletic about me, but I realized that you have to get into other people’s comfort zone to get information,” Newlun, of Rogers, Ark., told The Associated Press, explaining that her son, an Air Force technical sergeant, was a “gentle giant” who “just loved anything physical, anything athletic.”

Newlun said her son played football and basketball in high school and went to John Brown University on a swimming scholarship. He had wanted to go into the medical field and become a nurse anesthetist, but decided to join the military after seeing a video of a special tactical unit, she said.
Arkansas state Rep. Jon Woods went to high school with Brown in Siloam Springs and remembered playing basketball and watching “Saturday Night Live” on the weekends.

“When you think of what the ideal model of a soldier would be, he would be it,” said Woods. “He could run all day.”

TSGT Daniel L. Zerbe

Daniel L. Zerbe
Friends of Tech Sgt. Daniel L. Zerbe remembered the 28-year-old as driven but funny and easy to get along with.
Zerbe, a 2001 graduate of Red Lion Area High School in central Pennsylvania, did not say much about his Air Force duties, former schoolmate Jean Martin told The York Dispatch.

“He could make you laugh no matter what,” said Martin, who dated him after high school.
John Smeltzer, a friend of Zerbe’s, recalled playing football together starting in junior high, as well as going fishing, snowboarding and engaging in other outdoor pursuits.

Martin said Zerbe wasn’t the biggest player on the football or wrestling teams, but he worked hard to achieve his goals.
When Smeltzer last spoke with him in June, they talked about life and the birth of Smeltzer’s daughter. He has struggled to come to terms with his friend’s death.

“You wouldn’t think this is going to come,” he said.

We want to send our thought sand prayers out to the Brown and Zerbe families.

Air Force Medic’s like all Doc’s are standing at the tip of the spear in harms way taking care of those they are charged with.

Corpsman.com Salutes you all.

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D/C