County of memorial: Montgomery County
Location of memorial: 1100 Spaatz Street, Memorial Park, Wright-Patterson AFB
Memorial Erected by USAF
Dedicated: 25 June 1997 @ Prince Sultan AB; Rededicated 25 June 2004 @ Wright-Patterson AFB
Plaque Text (Upper):
Their sacrifice shall blaze
as a flame in our hearts
This Memorial
is dedicated to the
19 airmen
who lost their lives
on June 25 1996
in the terrorist attack
at Khobar Towers
in Dhahran
Saudi Arabia
Dedicated at Prince Sultan A. B.
June 25 1997
Plaque Text (Lower):
"Their sacrifice shall blaze
as a flame in our hearts.:
This Memorial
is dedicated to the
19 airmen
who lost their lives
on 25 June 1996
in the terrorist attack
at Khobar Towers
Dharan, Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia
Rededicated 25 June 2004
"Alfredo Guerrero, a staff sergeant at the time, wasn’t supposed to be on top of Bldg. 131 in the Khobar Towers complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on the night of June 25, 1996. But as the acting flight sergeant for the military police unit, he was checking on the Airmen who were assigned to sentry posts.
"Most of the Airmen in the building were assigned to the 4404th Wing (Provisional), and were in Saudi Arabia supporting Operation Southern Watch.
"It was a time before the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant became a threat. In 1996, Hezbollah and Iran targeted Americans.
"That night Guerrero arrived on the rooftop around 10 p.m., as he watched a large gas truck, followed by a car, make its way to the building he was on.
"That same car and truck was also spotted by then-1st Lt. Michael Harner, who was inside the building beside Guerrero. Harner, who had only been on station for several days, had just returned to his room, opened a sliding glass door and stepped out onto his balcony. Before the truck made its way to Guerrero’s building, Harner noticed it parked in a parking lot next to a mosque that was under construction. Days earlier, there had been no vehicle traffic through the parking lot.
'“I watched as it drove right in front of me, and the lights from the compound shone, so I could see the people in the truck, and there was actually a vehicle following the truck,” Harner said. “I thought that was very unusual to see that, and I didn’t know quite what to do about it, (because) nobody’s shooting or nobody’s doing anything.”
"The truck then parked beside Guererro’s building. Two men got out and hurried into the car, which sped off. At that moment, it clicked for Guerrero that this wasn’t normal and something bad was about to happen.
'“I got on the radio and called the control center to tell them what was going on, and, before I finished my first transmission, I thought about the people in the building and realized, ‘Well, if this is what I think it is, this building is going down,’” Guerrero said. “And so, before I finished my first transmission, I told them I was beginning to evacuate the building.”
"The Airman with Guerrero overheard his radio transmissions and rushed into the building to begin evacuating. Guerrero got the attention of another Airman on the other side of the building and the two of them also began evacuating the eight-story building." ~ U.S. Air Force