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One of the US airmen killed when their refueling plane crashed in friendly skies this month had predicted just the day before that he wasn’t “coming back” home from the Iran war, his dad said.
Tech Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28, was “very calm” on a call home from the Middle East just a day before he was one of six killed while refueling in Iraqi skies, his devastated dad, Mylo, told CNN Monday.
“Told me how much he loved me, he told me to say he loved his dog, Grayson… and you know, he was very insightful,” his dad said of their final communication before the March 12 tragedy.
“Unfortunately, he did tell me he didn’t think he was coming back.”
Mylo told his only son he hoped “he was going to be wrong” — but was comforted by the fact “he died doing what he loved doing.”
“And I always shared with him, ‘Live life with no regrets,’” the dad said. “And knowing Tyler, if he could do it all over again, he’d probably make the same decision because he loved what he did.
“I mean, obviously no one wants to die and no one foresaw that or saw that coming, but Tyler was… oh, he was just an amazing son and it was my privilege to be able to be his father.”
Simmons, of Columbus, Ohio, had shared the challenges linked to his deployment with his family before his death.
He told his mom, Cheryl, that his team had been shot at, WSYX reported.
She recalled the moment officers turned up at her door, informing her that Simmons had died.
“When he opened the door, he said, “Oh no,” and I jumped up and ran in there and they were lined up out on the porch,” she told WBNS-TV. “You got to me kidding me.”
Simmons and two other service members killed in the crash — Seth Koval, 38, and Curtis Angst, 30 — were part of the 121st Air Refueling Wing at the Rickenbacker base in Columbus.
The three others were members of the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida: Maj John. A Klinner, 33; Capt. Ariana Savino, 31; and Tech Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34.
They were “American heroes, all of them,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said.
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