AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo.—An Air Force officer who was among nine Americans killed in Kabul last month was praised as hardworking and humble Thursday by his family and officials at the Air Force Academy, where he taught foreign languages.
Maj. Philip Ambard’s flag-draped casket was carried into the Cadet Chapel by six pallbearers between a saber cordon of 44 cadets in blue uniforms. Flags at the academy and at public buildings across the state flew at half-staff in his honor.
Ambard was buried at the academy’s cemetery. The pallbearers lifted the U.S. flag off the polished wood coffin and held it as an officer read citations for five medals Ambard received, including the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
He was killed by an Afghan military pilot who opened fire during a meeting at the Kabul airport on April 27. The gunman’s family members said he was distressed over personal finances.
Ambard was at the airport as part of a NATO team training the Afghan air force.
“His life was about helping others. He believed in working hard as a way to help others,” said Brig. Gen. Dana Born, dean of faculty at the academy.
During the service, his family recalled his jokes and pranks. Once, after a cold camping trip, he took off his shoes, covered his toes with black shoe polish and then shouted to his wife that he had frostbite.
The family also recited what they called his family motto: “Don’t quit, don’t fail, and don’t get anyone pregnant.”
Ambard was raised in Venezuela, came to the U.S. at age 12 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, his wife, Linda, said.
“He was willing to give his life for our country, for the freedom of people everywhere, not just in the United States,” Lind Ambard said after the service. “He was willing to stand up and make a difference … so that others could be as free as the freedoms we have.”
After the pall bearers folded the flag from Ambard’s coffin, they handed the flag to Born, who knelt and gave it to Linda Ambard and spoke quietly to her.
Born said later she conveyed the nation’s gratitude for Ambard’s service—a customary courtesy at military funerals—and then added a personal comment.
“I told her I hope she feels some comfort in the fact that we loved Phil and the fact that he was part of our extended armed services family … and we embraced him.”
Ambard listed his hometown as Edmonds, Wash., but he and his family lived in the Colorado Springs area.
He joined the Air Force Academy faculty in 2003. He finished a doctoral program at the University of Denver last year and was to return to the academy after his one-year deployment to Afghanistan.
He was killed in a shooting that left dead eight U.S. Air Force personnel and a U.S. civilian contractor, and injured five Afghan soldiers. Two of the dead were Air Force Academy graduates: Lt. Col. Frank Bryant of Knoxville, Tenn., and Maj. David Brodeur of Auburn, Mass.
Also killed were Maj. Jeffrey O. Ausborn of Gadsden, Ala.; Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown of Deltona, Fla.; Maj. Raymond G. Estelle II of New Haven, Conn.; Capt. Nathan J. Nylander of Hockley, Texas; and Capt. Charles A. Ransom, 31, of Midlothian, Va. The slain contractor’s name was not immediately available.
Afghan officials identified the gunman as Ahmad Gul, 48, of Kabul province. They said he was killed later in an exchange of gunfire.
The gunman’s brother, Dr. Mohammad Hassan Sahibi, told a Kabul television station that his brother had no connection with the Taliban or al-Qaida. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the shooting and offered his condolences to the victims’ families.
Ambard is survived by his wife and five children. Two of the children are Air Force Academy graduates and currently serve in the military; another is a cadet at the academy.
One is a student at the University of Denver, and another is in the Army, stationed at Walter Reed Medical Center.
