SSGT DYLAN ELCHIN

KIA
JUNE 11, 1993 - NOVEMBER 27,2018
HOME OF RECORD: HOOKSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

Staff Sergeant Dylan J. Elchin was a Special Tactics Combat Controller with the 26th Special Tactics Squadron, 720th Special Tactics Group, 24th Special Operations Wing, Air Force Special Operations Command, Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico. As a CCT, Elchin was specially trained into combat operations to conduct global access, precision strike, and personnel recovery operations. He was skilled in reconnaissance operations, air traffic control and terminal attack control operations.

Elchin was born in Beaver, Pennsylvania in 1993. He enlisted in the United States Air Force as a Special Tactics Combat Controller on August 7, 2012. He immediately entered the two-year Special Tactics Combat Controller training program and upon completion of the pipeline, he was assigned to the 26th Special Tactics Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico. He was a qualified military static line jumper, free fall jumper, an Air Force qualified combat scuba diver and a qualified Joint Terminal Attack Controller.

In August 2018, Elchin deployed to Afghanistan and embedded with an Army Special Operations Force Operational Detachment-Alpha team where his role was to advise the Ground Force Commander, direct close air support aircraft, and deliver destructive ordnance on enemy targets in support of offensive combat operations.

While on hist first deployment, Elchin was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near Ghazni province, Afghanistan, Nov. 27,2018. Two U.S. Army Special Operations Forces members were also killed in the explosion.

He is survived by his mother and fiancé.