The Oklahoma Air National Guard lost a an airman with 25 years of F16 experience on Sunday night after the 138th’s Fighter Wing’s drill weekend.
Within hours after Claremore’s Technician Sergeant David Allen Kehoe arrived home from a stressful weekend at drill at the north Tulsa base, Sgt. Kehoe allegedly had a heart attack.
“He texted me that he was taking a walk and I didn’t respond for 19 minutes, then after I did text him back, he never responded, which is unlike him,” said TSgt. Kehoe’s wife of almost six years, Trish Rogers Kehoe. “I wasn’t home yet from visiting friends and family and so when I got home I was expecting to see him but he wasn’t there so I drove around the area we walk together and I saw the police.”
Her 47-year-old husband was on the ground when she spotted him. A neighbor had seen him there and called the Claremore police. Medical officials on the scene told his wife it looked like he had a heart attack.
TSgt. Kehoe’s supervisor, Senior Master Sgt. Charles Arroyo said Sgt. Kehoe never complained of any pain during drill weekend.
“I was just with him around 5:30 or 6:00,” said SMSgt. Arroyo. “We were all joking around and laughing about Fantasy Football. I said I’ll see you later.”
SMSgt. Arroyo has known Sgt. Kehoe since he enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard in November of 2000. Before that he was in the United States Air Force in active duty from January 12th, 1987 through November of 2000.
While in active duty he served in Kosovo and Saudi Arabia. In 2008, he served in Iraq.
“He was one-of-a-kind,” said SMSgt. Arroyo. “He was absolutely a great friend, at work and outside of work. He would get the job done and he would just be there to do anything for anybody if you asked him for help.”
He leaves behind his wife and four young children. He and Trish are also foster parents and sometimes are taking care of eight children at a time. One of their four children, Nevah, is adopted. Nevah has Cystic Fibrosis and the family has been trying to raise money for a cure.
The funeral will be on Monday at 10:00 a.m. at Claremore’s Church of the Nazarene.
