Our Hero

Captain Kenneth Dalga is known to most of us just as Kenny. 

 

Kenny was born in Goldsboro, NC where his mother and father were stationed at Seymour Johnson AFB.  His family returned to Northern Kentucky where Kenny grew up alongside his younger brother Nolan and much of their extended family.  Kenny attended the University of Kentucky for college from 2005-2010, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  It was at UK that Kenny met most of his closest friends that serve as Board of Directors for the CKDF, including his wife Sarah.  After college, and after having moved to Denver, Colorado while Sarah attended graduate school, Kenny found his greater purpose, being accepted into the United States Air Force as a Combat Systems Officer.

 

Kenny continued on to complete Officer Training School at Maxwell AFB in 2013, and complete Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training at NAS Pensacola in 2014.  It was there that Kenny was paired with the aircraft platform that he would train on, the U-28A intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft as part of the Air Force Special Operations Forces.  Kenny and Sarah were off to Cannon AFB in Clovis, NM at the end of 2014.  At Cannon, Kenny served with the Dark Horses of the 318th Special Operations Squadron, deploying three times including to Africa and the Middle East.  

 

On March 14, 2017, Captain Kenneth Dalga was one of three Air Force service members that lost their lives during a training mission when their U-28 aircraft crashed in Clovis, New Mexico.  Captain Kenneth Dalga, Major Andrew Becker, and Captain Drew Dellecker were not only all members of the 318th Special Operations Squadron at Cannon AFB in Clovis, NM at the time, but were also good friends and comrades.  They are missed every single day, but never forgotten.