In memoriam/Beyond the names of a Western New York catastrophe

— Associated Press

Retired U. S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. JOHN J. FIORE saw three wars before retiring to civilian life.

Fiore, 60, a Niagara Falls native, was on Flight 3407 on his way back from a vacation, said a friend, Duane Frost.

“All the sacrifices that he’s done for the country and for this to happen to him and have his life cut short is just mind-boggling,” said Frost, a fellow veteran. “He got cheated.”

Fiore started his military career in Vietnam with the Marines.

He later joined the Air Force Reserves and served as an air transportation manager with the 30th Aerial Port Squadron of the 914th Mission Support Group.

In an August 2006 article in the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station publication “Niagara Frontiersman,” Fiore described the squadron’s work in the war on terror as “making history.”

“The airlift missions we scheduled moved more than 700 officials in support of the first free Iraqi elections since 1953,” Fiore told the 914th Airlift Wing public affairs office in 2006.

Fiore served as an airlift scheduler at the Air Mobility Division, Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, during the tour, which began in 2004, according to the “Niagara Frontiersman.”

Fiore lived on Grand Island, Frost said.

He was also an active volunteer at John J. Welch Post 381, American Legion, in Niagara Falls and several other veterans organizations.

— Denise Jewell Gee