Bemidji native dies when plane crashes in Afghanistan

Randy and Pam Bergquist

By MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune

Last update: October 28, 2009 - 5:31 AM

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There was no word for six days when Randy Bergquist's plane went missing in the isolated mountains of Afghanistan. But those who knew him said that if his plane was operable, Berquist would get it out of there. Bergquist, a Minnesota native and former drug interdiction officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was just that kind of pilot.

"Everybody knew that if that plane was flyable, he was walking out of the mountains," said his wife, Pam.. "Careful. Common sense. So resourceful."

But Bergquist's body was among three found in the wreckage of an Army reconnaissance plane that crashed two weeks ago in the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. He was 53. The three were working for Lockheed Martin contractors and on a NATO surveillance mission.

Bergquist had lived for more than 20 years in Florida but his roots were in Minnesota - and in the air. He was born in Bemidji and graduated from Princeton High School, passing up a wrestling scholarship to join the U.S. Marines.

He and Pam met and became friends while he was a charter pilot and flight instructor for Alexandria Aviation and she was one of his students. They married in 1982 and moved to Florida in 1987, where he worked for what was then United States Customs, flying fixed wing planes and doing drug surveillance and interdiction.

After his retirement, Bergquist went to work for Avenge Inc., a Virginia-based company that provides government and military flight operations. He started flying in Afghanistan in 2007, working several months at a time before returning home. He did not talk much of his duties but this was his third tour and he believed in the work.

"One of my best friends said, 'Randy, you need to get out of there' and he said, 'No, we can't let the bad guys win'," Pam Bergquist said. "He seemed to get to people at a time when people needed someone like him. You just broke the mold with him."

Bergquist's Army C-12 Huron twin-engine turboprop had been missing since it crashed Oct. 13 while on a routine mission in Nuristan province, a stronghold of Taliban insurgents. NATO said in a statement the incident is "under investigation, though hostile action is not believed to be the cause of the crash." Thomas Casey, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Corp., confirmed that those killed -- Bergquist, a copilot and technician -- were American citizens working for Lockheed Martin subcontractors.

They were employed under a Lockheed Martin contract for "counter-narcoterrorism" operations, Casey said. Casey said only that it was a surveillance mission.

Bergquist and the co-pilot worked for Avenge Inc., while the technician, Jeff Lehner, was employed by a Nevada-based contractor called Sierra Nevada Corp, Casey said. The copilot's family requested that he not be identified. Lehner is from Ohio and previously served in the Air Force.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636

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