CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. –
Family members and close colleagues helped dedicate a training facility for expeditionary civilians in honor of former Defense Logistics Agency employee Krissie K. Davis at Camp Atterbury in Indiana June 3.
Davis was killed by direct enemy fire during an attack on Afghanistan’s Bagram Air Base while serving there with the agency in 2015. The 54-year-old wife and grandmother from Anniston, Alabama, spent 22 years with DLA, supporting warfighters’ reverse logistics needs as part of the DLA Disposition Services property disposal team and deploying to Southwest Asia twice.
Navy Vice Adm. Michelle Skubic led a contingent of agency leaders, expeditionary workforce personnel and disposition sub-command staff in honoring Davis in person.
“Thank you for allowing us to pay tribute to Krissie and to keep alive the memory of this great American patriot and hero,” Skubic said. “Let us honor her so that in our actions, we will give further meaning to her sacrifice.”
Camp Atterbury’s Krissie K. Davis Administration and Operations Building 349 is part of a larger complex at the Indiana Army National Guard installation where the majority of the Defense Department’s civilian workforce receives pre-deployment training for combat zone work.
“It’s appropriate that the Army memorialize her in this way,” Skubic said. “Seeing Krissie’s name enshrined on this building and learning her story will, I hope, inspire the next generation of patriotic civilians who volunteer to serve in harm’s way for their country.”
The building dedicated to Davis was one of four named for fallen civil servants. Other honorees included Anthony Acerra, of the Defense Contract Management Agency; Dr. Maged Hussein, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and Michael Sauro, of the Defense Ammunition Center. Additionally, the conference room in the Davis building was dedicated to Army Spc. Ross McGinnis, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his lifesaving actions during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Davis’ family members in attendance included her daughter, son-in-law, and several grandchildren, who expressed thanks and shared recollections with her former coworkers.
“There’s a lot of mixed emotions. I haven’t been ready for something like this up until now,” said Davis’ daughter, Angela Langley-Mitchell. “But this has been a wonderful experience. She would be so honored.”
Davis’ grandson, Army Spc. Jakob Elkins, received special permission to take a short leave from his unit rotation in Poland to attend the event. Elkins was just 14 when Davis was killed. He said they were very close, and he would sit in her living room every day after school to watch Jeopardy! and inevitably get beat by her. Her death hardened his resolve to join the Army.
“Serving had always been a dream of mine,” Elkins said. “Once she was killed on deployment, it was like the kick I needed.”
Elkins said the memorialization had been an emotional event for the family, but they would be better off because of it.
“It will benefit our family, 100%,” Elkins said. “It gives us hope that people will see her face and strive to be the kind of patriot she was.”
In the past two decades, DLA has sent 1,227 civilians to combat zones. More than 830 of them have deployed more than once. DLA Aviation‘s Taylor Frazier is among those agency employees with multiple deployments. He was winding down his first trip to Afghanistan when Davis was killed, and he volunteered to escort her back to her family at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. He attended the Camp Atterbury dedication and said the site was a perfect fit for remembering her.
“I can’t think of a better place to honor her than where other civilians who share the same mission and commitment prepare to deploy,” Frazier said.