JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Riders from the Hickam Motorcycle Club rode 14 laps around Atterbury Circle yesterday to mark the years that USAF Maj. John Jackson was in the Air Force. Jackson was killed last Saturday in a hit-and-run while tending to his motorcycle.
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Bikers honor officer
Maj. John Jackson, killed in a hit-and-run, is remembered in a memorial service
As the flag at Hickam Air Force Base flew at half-staff yesterday for an esteemed officer and motorcyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver, about 55 friends on motorcycles circled the flag 14 times for each year of his military service.
Maj. John Jackson, a Northeast Asia expert for the Pacific Air Forces, died early last Saturday morning after he was struck by a gold Chevy Astro van while hitching a trailer to his car. The driver and his passenger fled on Nimitz Highway and are being sought by police.
The Air Force and his family held a memorial service at the Hickam officers club yesterday for Jackson, a major who had been selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel and for whom the promotion is being sought posthumously.
The 36-year-old Jackson received a seven-gun salute, and in a rare gesture for a four-star general, Commander of Pacific Air Forces Gen. Paul Hester presented his wife, Suzanne, with an American flag.
Jackson's 18-year-old stepson, Michael Quintero, who was helping Jackson load his disabled motorcycle onto a trailer at the time of the accident, was seriously injured and sat in a wheelchair at the service.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Suzanne Jackson, center, surrounded by son Michael and daughter Breeanna, greeted well-wishers yesterday after memorial services for her husband at Hickam Air Force Base.
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Jackson's motorcycle had broken down on Nimitz sometime before 2:30 a.m. last Saturday, and he called home. His wife, who also received minor injuries, and Quintero came to pick him up.
Stepdaughter Breeanna, 15, and his parents, sister and mother-in-law also attended yesterday's service.
A maile lei was draped over Jackson's motorcycle handlebars and forks, and numerous floral arrangements adorned the stage.
Motorcyclists belonging to the Pearl Harbor and Hickam motorcycle clubs and other friends, mostly in military uniform, quietly rumbled into the parking lot before the service and, at its conclusion, fired up their engines in a single roar as a tribute to Jackson, who served as safety officer of the Hickam club.
Gen. Hester, under whom Jackson worked, extended his sympathies to both his family and his Air Force family, with about 200 in attendance.
Jackson had planned and executed a trip to China for Hester, and the trip was perfect, said Hester, the first Air Force general in more than a decade to visit the country. Jackson served as chief of the Northeast Asia Theater Security Cooperation Branch at Headquarters Pacific Air Forces and had been brought to Hawaii to serve as an Asia political-military affairs strategist.
Jackson's supervisor, Col. Rafael Quezada, said Jackson was already doing so much, yet Jackson told him, "'It's not enough, I want to go over to Afghanistan.' It exemplified what he was about." Jackson was scheduled to leave in May.
He said Jackson's family hopes the driver will reflect on the injury done to his family. The family asks the driver and anyone who has information about the accident to come forward.
Police want help finding the driver and passenger of the gold Chevy Astro van. Anyone with information concerning the accident is urged to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cell phone.