FAST Memorial Stones

In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, DEA created the Foreign-Deployed Advisory Support Team - or FAST – program to target Afghanistan’s most notorious drug traffickers, dismantle opium trade, and disrupt the illicit finances used to support terrorist organizations.

On October 26, 2009, FAST experienced its first fatalities when a helicopter crashed resulting in the deaths of three DEA agents and seven U.S. military personnel. Special Agent Forrest Leamon, Special Agent Chad Michael and Special Agent Michael Weston were among a large group being extracted from a joint counter narcotics operation in western Afghanistan.

The U.S. military created 10 stones to honor those who died in the helicopter crash and displayed them at Camp Brown at the Kandahar Airfield. In 2014, Camp Brown was decommissioned and turned over to the Afghan government. These 3 stones were offered to DEA FAST members to bring back to the U.S. where they were donated to the Museum for safekeeping.

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