As a weapons systems officer on B-1 bombers, Air Force Capt. Chad Nishizuka is used to flying.
But he never could have prepared himself to escort the body of his older brother, Air Force Capt. Reid Nishizuka, home to Kailua from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
"I think the big thing is the disbelief," Chad Nishizuka said, describing as surreal his brother’s death in a plane crash in Afghanistan on Saturday.
Reid Nishizuka had completed three tours to Iraq and one to Afghanistan before his most recent mission began last month.
"Our whole time in the Air Force, we’ve been at war," Chad Nishizuka said by telephone Sunday from Delaware. "Either he’d be leaving or I’d be leaving, and we’d always say, ‘Hey, we’ll meet up (afterward).’ … You get so used to it, and you don’t really think about it, but this is definitely a good reminder of the fact that we are still at war."
Family members and friends have been mourning the death of the 30-year-old Kailua native since word spread Saturday that the MC-12 aircraft he was piloting in Afghanistan crashed, killing him and three other airmen.
The Pentagon said the cause of the crash in Zabul province, about 110 miles northeast of Kandahar Airfield, is under investigation. There reportedly was no enemy activity in the area at the time.
Ricky Nishizuka, Reid Nishizuka’s father, said he didn’t worry too often about his sons because they fought in the air rather than on the ground.
"I figured they’re in the aircraft so they’re safe up there, but you never can tell when the time is up," he said by telephone from Las Vegas. "The comforting thing is Reid, you know, made the ultimate sacrifice doing what he loved to do, and that was flying the airplane."
Ricky Nishizuka said his son first took an interest in planes when he was 5. He served as commander of the Junior ROTC group at Kailua High School, from which he graduated in 2000, and landed a full-ride academic and ROTC scholarship to the University of Notre Dame to study aerospace engineering.
He also was passionate about real estate, owned three houses and was close to getting a master’s degree.
"When you lose somebody like that, you have such an empty feeling in your heart because he had so many accomplishments in his short lifetime," his father said.
A friend from college described Reid Nishizuka as being filled with aloha; as a man of character, honor, humility and selflessness who had a mile-wide smile and a knack for cracking jokes.
"I will always remember Reid as a man who had a dream to serve his country and not only lived that dream, but did it with pride and aloha," said Kahele Naeole of Makiki. "I always knew that our country was in good hands with him serving."
Naeole said the two met at a community service project the summer before their freshman year at Notre Dame and instantly connected.
"It was very comforting to know that someone like Reid would be joining me so far from home," he said by email Sunday. "To this day, I’ll never forget his chocolate haupia pie (considering we were in Indiana, it was better than Ted’s Bakery). We appointed him food commissioner for the Notre Dame Hawaii Club for a reason."
Ricky Nishizuka said Chad Nishizuka is taking his brother’s death hard because the two were only a year apart and grew up "like two peas in a pod."
He recalled with a laugh, "During their early years they could never play on the same team because they were too competitive, and they would never play as a teammate."
Chad Nishizuka said he went to college in Chicago, which made it easy to visit his brother and catch Notre Dame football games with him. They spent their summer and winter breaks wakeboarding and kayaking. "He was just a good guy, always there to make you smile and was always talented in whatever he did," he said.
Even though the two often competed, Chad Nishizuka said his brother was his role model. "I think that’s why I am where I am, because of the friendly competition between us," said Chad Nishizuka, stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., with the 28th Bomb Wing. "I think it kind of made us both better at what we did."
Reid Nishizuka and the three other Air Force service members who died in the crash were deployed with the 361st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, 451st Air Expeditionary Wing, at Kandahar Airfield. Nishizuka’s home unit was the 427th Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.
He had just arrived at Beale in November and deployed to Afghanistan last month, public relations supervisor Staff Sgt. Robert Trujillo said by telephone.
Also killed were:
» Capt. Brandon L. Cyr, 28, of Woodbridge, Va., assigned to the 906th Air Refueling Squadron, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
» Staff Sgt. Richard A. Dickson, 24, of Rancho Cordova, Calif., assigned to the 306th Intelligence Squadron, Beale Air Force Base, Calif.
» Staff Sgt. Daniel N. Fannin, 30, of Morehead, Ky., assigned to the 552nd Operations Support Squadron, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.
The MC-12W Liberty is a medium- to low-altitude, twin-engine turboprop aircraft, according to the Air Force. Its primary mission is providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support directly to ground forces.
