Bomb Blast Kills Omaha-Area Sailor In Iraq

OMAHA, Neb. — A 35-year-old sailor who graduated from a Bellevue high school has been killed by a roadway bomb in Iraq.

 

The Department of Defense said July 18 that Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey L. Chaney was assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11, out of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., which is north of Seattle. He and another sailor, Chief Petty Officer Patrick Wade of Key West, Fla., died during combat operations July 17 in Iraq’s Salah Ad Din province, the Pentagon said.

 

     Wade’s mother, Shirley, said she was told the men were on a convoy. “They were going to take care of some explosives, and their vehicle was hit by a very deep charge,” she said. The Wade family said they were told the explosion left a crater 40 feet long and 6 feet deep.

 

Chaney graduated in 1990 from Bellevue West High School and was a 14-year-veteran of the Navy, his family said. His mother, Connie Chaney, told WOWT-TV in Omaha that she talked to her son often and “never one time ever did he hang up without saying ‘I love you, Mom.’ ”  “I’ll miss ‘I love you, Mom,’ ” Connie Chaney said July 18.

 

 Jeffrey Chaney was the youngest of five children and the father of a 14-year-old girl, Brianna, who lives in Omaha. He was also survived by his father, Larry Chaney of Minneapolis; a sister; and two brothers. His mother said funeral arrangements were not final yet.

 

Her son grew up in “Air Force country” in and around Bellevue, home of Offutt Air Force Base, Connie Chaney said. “All his friends were Air Force people,” she told the Lincoln Journal Star. “He chose the Navy,” enlisting in 1993.

 

       A public affairs officer for the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island said Chaney was sent to Iraq in May. Jeffrey Chaney’s cousin Chris Speckmeier said Chaney was committed to his mission in Iraq. “Jeff had the attitude that it was his job, he loved his job, and all he wanted to do was his job ... even if it meant giving his life,” Speckmeier said.

 

       Chaney is the 52nd service member with Nebraska connections to have died in Afghanistan or Iraq since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.