Duncan Hannigan passed away at 16:37 yesterday, 27 April 2017. He was 50 years old and he had stage 4 bone cancer. I chose this picture of him because it shows the joy Duncan had in life. It was taken in March 1990 and shows Duncan catching a poisonous fish on the wooden bridge that connected Peale and Wake Islands, Wake Atoll, Micronesia, 2,298 miles west of Hawaii. During the 1930's Pan Am used Peale Island as a refueling stop for its China Clipper service. Duncan joined our unit, the 161st Air Refueling Wing, at Sky Harbor, Phoenix, Arizona in fall of 1987. He was 20 years old, and was a junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He worked part time for a Ford dealership. I remember Duncan when we first took him on the flight line and showed him our KC-135 E's, the Air Force equivalent of the commercial Boeing 707. Duncan was an aviation enthusiast, his S-10 pick-up had the license plate ' AV8TOR', and he already had his private pilots license with instrument ratings. In December 1987 Duncan and I went on a weekend trip to Hawaii while our aircraft performed refueling missions there. When Duncan neared the completion of his aviation related degree it was a given that he would be nominated to attend OCS (Officer Candidate School) and after that become a tanker pilot for the unit. In the meantime he was offered a technician position with the unit, i.e. permanent employment. But occasionally he mentioned that he had a pain at his side, and it turned out he had a bad kidney. So he had an operation and the kidney was removed, but there went his chance to become a pilot, or navigator, or even an officer, that chance went out the door. I often wondered if he had waited until after he was commissioned and become a pilot if he could have flown or at least been an officer. But there were no complaints from Duncan, he handled it very well I thought, and I admired him for that. In the 1994 Duncan got married to Julie and we all attended the wedding. Julie had the same mentality and they were a perfect match. For a while, both of them flew to airports of small towns in Arizona on weekends , ate at the airport restaurants and wrote a review of their experience which was published in an Aviation magazine. Duncan stayed in our shop as an enlisted man and a technician, and advanced to Senior Master Sergeant (SMS). About 4-5 years ago he had a weird medical condition, where his skin turned yellow. Not much was spoken about it and I never knew what happened. And my buddy Rob, who had taken over the shop didn't know either. Sometime after that medical condition Duncan moved upstairs to take over the Squadrons finances. Not much was thought about it, because that move allowed for a promotion to Chief Master Sergeant (CMS), with additional duties and having still oversight of the Life Support Shop. Fast forward to fall 2016. Duncan's son Jake had the opportunity to spent a semester at sea. On December 10, our unit, the 161st Refueling Wing, celebrated its 70 anniversary. On November 1946 the unit was founded at Luke AFB and it began flying P-51s. One of the founders was Barry Goldwater, the senator from Arizona who had been running for president of the United States in 1964. Duncan and Julie as well as many other members of the unit attended that celebration at a downtown hotel. I didn't. I was getting ready to go to Germany to visit my cousin for Christmas. Sometime in December I received a text from Rob wanting to know if I could make it to Duncan's retirement party scheduled for 7 January. I could and I would attend. A few days later, I received a text that Duncan was in the hospital and that they were hoping he could get out in time so Duncan and Julie could pick up their son Jake in San Diego from his semester at sea, which had come to an end. While in Germany I received a text informing me that Duncan's retirement party was on hold, no reason given. I returned on 5 January and on 7 January, a drill weekend, Duncan showed up at the unit and informed them that he had Stage 4 Bone Cancer. He had turned 50 in early January and he just had completed his MBA and was ready to start a new career. Duncan had been in and out of hospitals since. This last Monday I got a text from Rob where Julie, Duncan's wife, informed us that Duncan had had a rough weekend. That was Monday. On Tuesday I received a text that Duncan had been moved to the ICU. Yesterday morning I asked Rob about Duncan 's condition and it didn't look good. At 17:45 yesterday afternoon while watching the news, I realized that I had received a text 10 minutes earlier informing me that Duncan had passed at 16:37. When it became apparent to the doctors that Duncan would not make it to the end of the day, the question was how to get a hold of his son Jake and get him to his bedside. Jake was at NAU in Flagstaff, 150 north of Phoenix, attending classes. So Rob called Judy, a retired 1st Sergeant of our unit now living in Bellmont about 10-15 miles west of Flagstaff. Judy got a hold of Jake, they were told to be at the Flagstaff airport. On this end, in Phoenix, one of our pilots had his private plane at the Chandler Municipal Airports and when told about the situation he was in the air within 30 minutes flew to Flagstaff and brought Judy and Jake back to Chandler airport, where Rob stood by to drive Jake to the hospital, so they could spent the last remaining hours together. You will be missed by all Duncan. Rest in Peace!