Senior Airman Adam Servais, an Onalaska native and a member of Air Force Special Operations, was killed Saturday, August 19th, 2006 in Afghanistan, family members said.

Servais, 23, died along with two Afghan soldiers in the southern Uruzgan province during a fight with more than 100 insurgents, according to a NATO statement. He joined the Air Force in 2002 and was a combat controller in its elite special operations command.

Servais was assigned to the Air Force's 16th Operations Group located at Hurlburt Field, Fla. The group is the Air Force's largest special operations unit, "with 7,000 highly trained military professionals who stand ready to conduct special operations missions at a moment's notice," according to a Hurlburt Field fact sheet.

The group conducts unconventional warfare, counterinsurgency and psychological operations, the fact sheet states.

The troops in Uruzgan are part of a U.S. team training the fledgling Afghan National Army. About 22,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, along with 20,000 NATO-led troops.

Servais' father, Peter Servais, said of his son in a written statement: "He was proud of what he accomplished in the Air Force and proud of what he was doing. He enjoyed the team that he trained with, and he didn't need recognition, he didn't want to be a big deal."

The airman's mother, Susan Servais, said her son was well aware of the risks of his job "and he was very solid about that. That's something we have to respect despite how sad we are for his loss. We loved our son more than life."

Servais' parents declined to be interviewed.

The 2001 graduate of Onalaska High School was remembered as a standout athlete who excelled at hockey and football, and also as a well-liked classmate.

Tim Franzini, who coached Servais in hockey, said Servais had a strong work ethic and was an exemplary defensive hockey player.

"He was solid and tough," Franzini said. "Not a big goal scorer, but someone you wish you had three or four of those kids every year." Franzini said he was surprised to hear of Servais' death in Afghanistan because the last time he saw him, which was more than a year ago, Servais had not yet been sent overseas.

"I didn't think he'd ever get to that situation," Franzini said.

"He's the type of kid you'd want in the service protecting us," Franzini said. "He cared, he was committed, he was dedicated."

Franzini's son Ryan, who played several years on the Onalaska hockey team with Servais, said Servais was "well-liked by everybody" and had a good sense of humor, "almost a class-clown type of guy" in the locker room.

Ryan Franzini also said Servais' death was a shock.

"He's the last person you'd expect this to happen to."

An aunt, Maggie Tracey of Genoa, Nev., told the Associated Press that Servais enjoyed seeing how much he could accomplish in the military and was always pushing himself to do more.

"He always achieved everything he wanted to achieve and put his heart into everything he did," she told the AP.

Mission; we try to drink as many Car Bombs as humanly possible.  Lots and lots of them.  But we make it a point to get all the guys together when somebody passes away to do a toast.    And the ingredients are…

 ½ Pint of Guiness  (The pint glass will be half full, leaving room to drop the shot into it)

Shot glass with ½ Jameson and ½ Baileys.

Then you take the shot glass and drop it into the ½ pint of Guiness and down it really quick before it starts to curdle.  It tastes horrible when it curdles, but tastes really good when it’s drank in one shot.