WASHINGTON -- Three special agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration from northern Virginia and D.C. were among the 22 U.S. citizens killed in 24 hours in Afghanistan.
They died Monday in a helicopter crash.
Special Agent Forrest Leamon, 37; Special Agent Chad Michael, 30; and Special Agent Michael Weston, 37, died Monday in a helicopter crash. The men were assigned to the agency's expanded effort against the opium trade in Afghanistan and were returning from a mission.
The deaths are the DEA's first fatalities in that country since beginning operations there in 2005.
The crash also claimed the lives of seven U.S. service members. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Leamon had been working in Afghanistan since 2007. Until August, Michael had been working at the DEA's Miami office. Weston had worked recently at the Richmond, Va., office.
Leamon lived in Dale city and had been married just more than a year. His wife was expecting their first child.
