PORTLAND, Ore. -- The family of a 27-year US Army veteran who grew up in Portland said late Tuesday that he was among seven Americans killed in a suicide attack on CIA operatives in Afghanistan.
Dane Paresi was working as a security contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency at a military base near the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Dec. 30 when a Jordanian doctor working as a double-agent detonated a suicide bomb, according to the US government.
Paresi was a retired non-commissioned officer, a master sergeant previously based at Fort Lewis.
Dane loved the Army and what it stood for, his brother, Terry Paresi of Oregon City, said in a prepared statement sent to KGW. He never wavered in his commitment to our country, his fellow soldiers and the people he worked with both military and civilian.
According to the family, MSGT Paresi was to be buried Saturday, Jan. 9 at Willamette National Cemetery in Southeast Portland. The cemetery is located less than a mile away from where Paresi grew up. A wake was also scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Evergreen Memorial Gardens in Vancouver, Wash.
Distinguished military career
Paresi attended Portland s Marshall High School and lettered in soccer before he went on to basic training upon graduating in 1982. One of six siblings, he grew up in Portland's Mount Scott neighborhood.
Paresi got married, started a family and called DuPont, Wash. home after moving there in 2005. His wife, MindyLou said the family was devastated. We are broken, but we are also very proud of him, she told an APreporter in a phone interview. All the agents are national heroes because they were there to do a job... they were heroes fighting the war against terror.
Paresi had retired from the Army in 2009 after a distinguished 27-year career including deployment with Special Operations First and Third Groups to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Kenya, Bosnia, Southeast Asia and other hot spots . He had been awarded the Bronze Star, the National Defense Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the NATO Medal as well as other commendations.
He was working as a contractor alongside CIAemployees when the Dec. 30 attack occurred.
Dedicated family man
There was only one thing that Dane loved more than the US Army and that was his family. He was their protector and provider. He died trying to give them the best life he could, the family statement read.
Paresi was survived by his wife his wife, MindyLou, and daughters Alexandra, 24, and Santina, 9, as well as his parents and five siblings. His parents, Charles and Jan Paresi, still live in Portland.
MindyLou was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Tuesday after meeting the flag-draped coffins of her husband and the other fallen operatives. A small private ceremony Monday was attended by CIA Director Leon Panetta, other agency and national security officials, and friends and family.
Attack a major blow to tight-knit CIA
The bombing in late December dealt a blow to the tight-knit spy agency. Among the others killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three.
MindyLou Paresi said she was told her husband was at the meeting inside the military compound and suspected something was wrong. When he approached, the informant detonated his explosives. She said her husband was right next to the bomber, the closest person to the blast. He saved many people, unfortunately seven of them did die, she said, noting that others were wounded. It could have been worse.
The bombing was considered the most lethal attack for the CIA since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001 and possibly even since the 1983 embassy bombing in Beirut. It also was the single deadliest attack for Americans in Afghanistan since eight soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack on a base in the east on Oct. 3.
The incident occurred at a former military base on the edge of Khost city, the capital of Khost province which borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
