Body of Iowa native killed in Afghanistan comes home

The body of an Iowa airman who made the ultimate sacrifice saving others was returned to his family on Wednesday.

Air Force Capt. David Wisniewski, 31,  died from injuries suffered in Afghanistan July 2.  The Moville, Iowa native was piloting an Air Force Black Hawk helicopter June 9 when he was shot down.  The helicopter crash near Forward Operating Base Jackson, Afghanistan, killed five airmen and wounded two others.

A charter jet that came from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to The Eastern Iowa Airport began what will be the final farewells for the Iowa native.  And the return of Wisniewski's body was marked with a brief, but solemn, ceremony outside an airport hangar.

His parents, Chet and Beverly Wisniewski of Iowa City, said family members are now gathering for a weekend service.  Chet Wisniewski said the support from people they know, and people they've never met, has given them comfort.

“David has touched the lives of so many people-around the country and around the world.  We were getting letters from all over.  Every day you'd go to the mailbox and there's 15-20 cards from Atlanta, Georgia…Spokane, Washington-just all over,” Wisniewski said.

An honor guard from Offutt Air Force base near Omaha, Nebraska tenderly transported the coffin to a waiting hearse.  Chet Wisniewski, an administrator at Regina School in Iowa City, said that was an appropriate choice.

At age six, his son David visited that Air Force base with a grandfather and saw a helicopter in the base museum.  “As he was walking out of the museum, he pulled on grandpa's shirt tail and said…someday I'm going to be flying one of those,” Wisniewski said.

Capt. Wisniewski was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and leaves behind a fiancé.  His burial with full military honors will take place at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. on August 23, 2010-more than a month from now.  That long wait is due to scheduling.

But his mother said that extra time, too, can be a comfort.

“You have time to reflect…it's not rushed…you have time to think-meditate,” Beverly Wisniewski said.

Visitation for Capt. David Wisniewski will take place Friday, July 23, 2010 from 4 to 8 p.m. at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 4330 St. Patrick Dr. in Iowa City.  A funeral mass will take place at the church the following day, Saturday July 24, 2010 at 10 a.m.

Iowa Governor Chet Culver ordered flags in Iowa flown at half staff on Saturday to honor Capt. Wisniewski.