For Easter weekend, we had two special guests–CW3 Matthew Longanacre and TSgt Ted Hofknecht. Matthew is an AH-64 D Apache pilot in the Army and Ted is a Combat Controller who went through the pipeline and graduated with Mark. Both recently returned home from deployment.
Matthew provided Mark air support for several missions in Afghanistan. Ted was deployed the same time as Mark, but was at a different base. He did attend one of Mark’s memorials in Afghanistan.
We attended the Sunrise Service at Winston Memorial Cemetery on Easter Morning, next to Mark’s grave. We were thankful to have Matthew and Ted with us there, at church, and for the entire weekend. They offered tremendous insight into Mark’s training and his final battle.
The picture below is Ted, Thad, Matthew. These two men by my side are great Americans.
