By Steve Neavling
On the 15th anniversary of his death, DEA agents in El Paso honored the life and legacy of Special Agent Forrest Nelson Leamon, who was killed in Afghanistan.
Leamon, 37, was remembered by DEA El Paso Division agents on Saturday, with a tribute at Restlawn Memorial Cemetery in Northeast El Paso, where they placed flowers on his grave, the El Paso Times reports. This annual tradition commemorates Leamon’s service and sacrifice for his country.
“Agent Leamon is one of our own,” DEA El Paso Division Special Agent in Charge Towanda R. Thorne-James said. “In addition to him being a part of the DEA Wall of Honor, the DEA Training Room in El Paso bears his name. Our Albuquerque Office is also named in his honor. On the 15th anniversary, I want his family to know he will never be forgotten.”
Leamon joined the DEA in 2002 following a nine-year career as a cryptologic technician in the U.S. Navy. After transferring to the El Paso Division from Washington D.C. in 2003, he played a key role in “several significant international enforcement operations against Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations,” according to DEA officials.
In 2007, he volunteered to join the DEA’s Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Teams, known as FAST, and served multiple tours in Afghanistan.
Originally from Ukiah, Calif., Leamon died on Oct. 26, 2009, when a U.S. military helicopter he was aboard crashed while returning from a joint counternarcotics mission in western Afghanistan. DEA special agents Chad L. Michael, 30, and Michael E. Weston, 37, were also killed in the crash.
“He was a hardworking, committed DEA agent who volunteered for the assignment,” former DEA Special Agent in Charge Joe Arabit told the El Paso Times in 2009. “He put his life on the line to make this country a better, safer place for all of us.”
