Drew Bellairs Memorial Service

Maj. Steve Peters, a chaplain with the 185th Air Refueling Wing, preaches to members of the 185th ARW during a memorial service for Senior Airman Drew Bellairs in Sgt. Bluff, Iowa on August 1, 2015. The memorial service honored Bellairs who passed away on July 25, 2015. (U.S. Air National Guard Photo by: Tech Sgt. Oscar Sanchez/185th ARW Wing Public Affairs Released)

Airmen gather to remember Bellairs

Published Aug. 5, 2015
By Capt. Jeremy J. McClure
185th ARW Public Affairs

Sergeant Bluff -- Airmen with the 185th Air Refueling wing gathered to remember fellow unit member Senior Airman Drew Bellairs during a memorial service held in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa on August 2, 2015.

Bellairs died July 25, 2015 when he drowned while swimming at Marbo Cave in Mangilao, Guam. Assigned as an aircraft mechanic, Bellairs served with the 185th Air Refueling Wing since 2012, he had been deployed to Guam for a temporary active duty assignment at the time of the accident.

"He was a good Airman who always had a smile on his face and is from a good family," said Col. Lawrence Christensen, commander of the 185th, during the service. "A lot of us are hurting right now but we have to remember to celebrate his life."

Major Stephan Peters, Chaplain with the 185th, told the several hundred Airmen gathered in attendance that we live life in steps and that there are risks in those steps.

"We all must remember to not get so caught up in watching where we are stepping, that we forget to live," said Peters to grieving Airmen. "He lived life to the fullest in between those steps."

Funeral service for Bellairs will be at held at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Osage, Iowa starting at 10:00 a.m. on August 6, 2015. Interment will be the following day at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minn. during a private ceremony.