Air Force Sergeant Loved Excitement, Saving Lives

Mary Webb Duffman cradled her 4-month-old daughter, Sophia, in her arms and slowly walked down York Drive in Arlington National Cemetery yesterday to meet her husband's coffin. Flanking her on her lonely journey were hundreds of Air Force airmen in their dress blues, five or six deep, standing at attention.

Many wore the maroon berets of elite pararescuemen, like the one that Tech. Sgt. Scott E. Duffman, 32, of Albuquerque, once wore and that would be buried with him.

"This was our way of showing her respect," Ryan Stanhope said of Duffman's widow.

"Scott was just one of those people you just wanted to be around," said Stanhope, who was Duffman's best friend and best man at his wedding. "He exuded life. None of us would have missed this for the world."

Duffman, of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and seven other members of a unit nicknamed the "Night Stalkers" were killed Feb. 18 when a MH-47 Chinook transport helicopter crashed in Afghanistan's Zabul province. Fourteen others were injured.

Duffman knew he wanted to be a pararescueman from the time he was small, Stanhope said. He grew up in Albuquerque, where his mother, Rose, was stationed as an Air Force medic. His stepfather was also in the Air Force.

Pararescuemen, first deployed in the jungles of Burma in World War II, are among the nation's elite Special Forces. Their mission is to rescue and recover downed or injured troops.

Duffman loved what he did, Stanhope said. As mourners began to gather, Stanhope reminded Duffman's mother of an Air Force recruiting film. In it, Duffman was asked why he was a pararescueman. "He answered, 'I love saving lives and this is the most exciting way I can think to do it.' "

"He loved excitement. He loved to live fast, to live in the moment," Stanhope said. He loved fast cars and motorcycles.

And he loved fatherhood, Stanhope said. From the moment his daughter was born, Duffman was carrying her around on his chest in a baby carrier. He "wore" his daughter at the office, shrugging off the ribbing the guys would give him. He wore her around the house. He changed diapers.

Duffman had been in and out of Afghanistan on a number of deployments since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Stanhope said. He had been awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Force Achievement Medal.

But this was the first deployment since his daughter's birth. He had been in Afghanistan just five days when he died.

Yesterday, after an Air Force Special Operations MC-130H Combat Talon jet flew over the cemetery in Duffman's honor, airmen paid their respects. Duffman's maroon beret lay on his casket, near a spray of white roses with a single blood-red rose and a patch bearing his unit's mascot, a smiling green Grim Reaper.

Into the beret, they placed medallions with the motto of the pararescuemen: "That others may live."