EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Members of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration here in El Paso remembered one of their own who was killed in the line of duty 15 years ago.
DEA Special Agent Forrest N. Leamon was killed on Oct. 26, 2009 when a U.S. military helicopter he was in crashed while returning from a joint counternarcotics mission in western Afghanistan, according to DEA.
Forrest Leamon’s gravesite at Restlawn Cemetery in El Paso. DEA agents gather to remember him and place flowers on his grave each year on the anniversary of his death. This year marks 15 years since his death. Photo by Carlos Briano/DEA
Leamon was 37 at the time of his death. He had been assigned to the DEA Field Division in El Paso since 2003.
He is buried at Restlawn Cemetery in El Paso, and each year on the anniversary of his death, the DEA family gather to place flowers on his gravesite.
Leamon was a member of the DEA’s foreign-deployed Advisory and Support Team Echo, assigned to Afghanistan at the time of his death.
While serving in El Paso, the DEA said he played a “major role in several significant international enforcement operations against Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations.”
The DEA’s Albuquerque building is named after him. In El Paso, the DEA office has a memorial to Leamon right outside their training room.
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