EOD compound named for fallen Airman

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jonathan Bass
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  The 20th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal flight’s compound was renamed for a fallen EOD Airman here, May 20.

Christina Kazakavage, mother of Tech. Sgt. Adam Ginett, an EOD Airman assigned to the 31st CES at Aviano Air Base, Italy, attended the event to commemorate her son.

“This solidified everything for me,” Kazakavage said. “To know that I don’t have to worry (about Ginett being remembered) because this is what he did, who he was, and what he loved.”

Ginett fell in the line of duty, Jan. 19, 2010, while deployed to Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. While serving on his fourth deployment, Ginett was conducting a dismounted patrol when an undetected improvised explosive device detonated, causing his death.

The ceremony reunited Ginett’s brothers-in-arms from his time at Shaw with Kazakavage.

“They were just like my sons,” she said. “A lot of them even today that are still here are every bit of my sons, we’re still considered mom and dad, they still call us mom and dad, and that endears me (to them.) We say we’re a family, we mean it.”

Friends and former colleagues joined Ginett’s family for the ceremony. Ginett was a 20th CES EOD Airman from 2004-2007.

“I’m hoping I honor him, that’s my hope,” said Kazakavage. “I’m honored to be his mother, blessed to have been his mother. I couldn’t be more proud of what he did and what he accomplished. He left a legacy, I didn’t do that, he did that and I just want people to know that he didn’t take his job lightly.”

A Knightdale, North Carolina, native, Ginett enlisted in 1999. Both of his grandfathers served in the military, one in the United States Marine Corps and the other in the Air Force.

“Adam’s death was a tragic loss to the EOD community,” said Col. Stephen Jost, 20th Fighter Wing commander. “But we take heart in his ultimate sacrifice and we know that through his memory and the EOD training complex, lives will be saved by EOD technicians just like him.”