Team Minot remembers one of its own

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Danny Monahan
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, ND --  Team Minot members will gather to honor a fallen Airman during a memorial service today at 3 p.m. at the North Plains Chapel.

Senior Airman Michael Duhamel, 791st Missile Security Forces Squadron died March 29 from a pulmonary embolism, which caused seizures.

“Mike was, in the best sense of the words, a good man, a good friend and a phenomenal professional,” said Maj. D.T. Young, 791st MSFS commander. “This squadron, our family, is diminished by his departure.”

Airman Duhamel, from Colorado Springs, Colo., enlisted in the Air Force in April 2003 and arrived to Minot in October 2003 after completing security forces training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. This was his first assignment.

In September, Air Duhamel deployed to Lackland AFB in support of Hurricane Katrina.
In a three-year career, Airman Duhamel’s achievements included being promoted in April 2005 below the zone to senior airman, was the squadron Personnel Reliability Program Monitor, which assures all Airmen are fit for duty, mentally and physically and was awarded an Armed Forces Service Medal.

According to the Lung Association, a pulmonary embolism occurs when an artery in the lung becomes blocked by a blood clot and affects approximately five out of 10,000 people in the U.S. each year.

Airman Duhamel is survived by his father Lee Duhamel, mother Susan Halcomb and sister Morgan Duhamel, paternal grandparents, Nancy and Roy Duhamel, maternal grandparents, Ann and Charles Maerten, step-grandparents, Helen and Leroy Halcomb, aunts, uncles, cousins and countless friends.