Correction: Master Sgt. Dan Wassom II and his wife, Suzanne Wassom, both shielded their daughters when a tornado hit their Vilonia home on April 27, according to his mother, Pam Wassom. Dan Wassom, who was killed in the storm, covered 5-year-old Lorelei, while Suzanne Wassom protected 7-year-old Sydney. This article incorrectly described how the family took cover.
It was getting dark when Dan Wassom Sr. stumbled through the "mind-blowing, mind-numbing" destruction left by an EF4 tornado that struck central Arkansas on April 27.
Walking among the debris that used to be his son's Vilonia home, Wassom called out to Dan Wassom II by the nickname he'd given his son as a child.
"I kept yelling, 'Buddy, Buddy, answer me if you can!'" Wassom said.
Someone gave Wassom a cellphone, he said, and he used the flashlight function to light up the wreckage.
When he first spotted his son, the 31-year-old was covered by his favorite blanket, given to him by his parents when he was 6 years old.
"I checked for a pulse, to see if I could hear a heartbeat," Wassom said. "It wasn't there."
Master Sgt. Dan "Bud" Wassom II, a member of the Arkansas Air National Guard, is said to have shielded his wife, Suzanne, and daughters, 7-year-old Sydney and 5-year-old Lorelei, putting his body on top of theirs as they were huddled in an interior hallway during the storm.
When the tornado ripped through their home, Wassom took most of the impact from flying debris and received a fatal blow to the neck, his father said. He was one of 16 people killed in the storm.
On Saturday morning, in front of family, friends and hundreds of airmen, the Air National Guard honored Wassom's actions that night, as well as those throughout his 12 years of military service.
In a hangar in the National Guard campus at Little Rock Air Force Base, Lt. Gen. Stanley Clarke III, the top-ranking Air National Guard member at the Pentagon, presented Wassom's wife and parents with the Airman's Medal, which Clarke called a "unique" and "rare" honor.
The medal, awarded by the U.S. Air Force, goes to those who risk their lives during heroic acts outside of combat.
"Dan knew what he needed to do, and he did it," Clarke said. "And you couldn't be prouder. This is a celebration of his sacrifice, of his commitment to what he did."
Wassom was also posthumously awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and the Arkansas Distinguished Service Medal for his work with the 189th Airlift Wing, which trains and qualifies C-130 flight crews.
Wassom, a C-130 evaluator loadmaster, flew more than 2,000 hours during his career and trained "countless" students, said Chief Master Sgt. Bradley Aorr.
In 2010, Wassom deployed to Kuwait with the 189th in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and he later went to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. While overseas, he helped transport combat equipment and supplies to troops on the ground under threat of small-arms fire, Aorr said.
Col. Robert Ator II, commander of the 189th, urged members of his unit Saturday to take a lesson from Wassom's death: to "step up and do what it takes" when the job requires it.
"One of the first things we do in combat, we say a little silent prayer," Ator said. "It goes, 'Please God, don't let me screw this up.' You question whether you have what it takes to do the job. Was Dan willing to step up? The answer is yes, and we're humbled by that. It's a hell of an example for us to know and one we need to think about in combat."
As a reminder of Wassom, his military service and his actions on April 27, Ator and others in the 189th decided to rename a 1-mile portion of the campus's main street as MSgt. Dan Wassom Road.
Because the unit's headquarters sits off that portion, every piece of correspondence will have Wassom's name on it, Ator said.
"Dan is the example of what it means to be selfless, and this is the chance for us to reflect on that, to remind ourselves of that," Ator said. "Every time we tell someone where we're from, every morning when we turn onto our street, we'll be reminded of Master Sgt. Dan Wassom, of who we are and what our service means. It's enduring. It's a lesson we'll take for life."
While Ator and other members of the 189th said they will remember Wassom as a teacher, a leader and a prankster, his father said he will always think of him as "Buddy" -- the courteous boy who said, "Thank you, Pop," every time they played ball or tossed a Frisbee together.
"I'm his father, he'll always be a kid to me," Wassom said. "He was a wonderful kid, a wonderful man, a great father. ... My son just loved people. He would have been humbled by all of this and truly, truly thankful. He probably would say, 'I don't deserve this, I just did what any dad would do.'"
SundayMonday on 12/07/2014