BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
June 8 marks 10 years since DLA Disposition Services’ Krissie K. Davis was killed by direct enemy fire during an attack on Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The longtime property disposal specialist remains the only of the major sub-command’s expeditionary civilian personnel to have been lost to combat-related injuries.
DLA Disposition Services Director Mike Cannon, who led the organization at the time of her passing and accompanied Davis’ family to Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base for the return of her body, marked the occasion in a personal note to the workforce June 5 in which he encouraged agency members to consider their own commitment to the national security mission.
“Let’s keep Krissie’s sacrifice in mind as we strive each day to meet the needs of our nation’s servicemembers, warfighters, and defenders,” Cannon wrote. “And let’s not forget that we are its defenders, too.”
The 54-year-old wife and grandmother from Anniston, Alabama, spent 22 years with DLA, in a federal career that also included service with the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Army. She joined DLA in 1993 and volunteered in 2010 for her first deployment in support of disposal operations at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan. The deployment at Bagram Air Base was her second expeditionary assignment for the agency.
In 2016, the agency memorialized Davis in the DLA Hall of Fame. In 2021, the U.S. Army dedicated a building to her at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, at the facility where most civilian deployers receive pre-deployment training for defense roles in combat zones.
Now-retired DLA Disposition Services Property Disposal Specialist Rob Delong was Davis’ “battle buddy” during the deployment and drove the Ford Ranger hit by a damaged rocket that day. Delong recently said he’s now working part time in retirement, giving museum tours at the Harley-Davidson campus in Milwaukee. He previously shared personal details about his efforts grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder from the attack and said he still thinks of Davis every day.
“One of the reasons we always rode together is because we integrated into the work schedule the same way. We both wanted to get in at 0600, we could get the gates open and the workday started while having some coffee and corresponding with our people back stateside where they were getting ready for bed,” Delong said. “One of the little things Krissie did for me, once we hit foreign soil, was allow me to use her laptop to make a phone call to my wife. … it was just the little things like that gesture that made us tight. I truly respected her for being a great person to work with.”