Family remembers lost Tyndall Airman

  • Published
  • By Ashley M. Wright
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  A popular song wonders, "Who you'd be today?"

"If she would have come back from Nairobi, she would have gotten an engineering degree. That was her plan, it just didn't unfold," said Evelyn Olds, mother of Senior Master Sgt. Sherry Lynn Olds.

The lives of Sergeant Olds and 11 other embassy employees were stolen by faceless terrorists in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

"I cried this morning. I miss her. The kids miss her. Her sisters miss her," Mrs. Olds said.

Nearly 15 years later, the memory of that morning and losing her oldest daughter stays in the mother's mind.

"I woke up at five o'clock in the morning and saw that going across the screen," Mrs. Olds said describing the scenes she saw on television. "I could see that it was bad when people were stopping to help each other pull the glass out of their face and hair. It was horrible. I looked through the crowd to see if I could see Sherry. There was a young woman... that I thought could be Sherry until I looked and she had on a pair of jeans. [Sherry] would not have worn jeans."

For a life cut short by the cowardice acts of others, Sergeant Olds' family testifies to her love of life growing up in Panama City, Fla., helping others and serving her country.

"This is her starting to walk," said Mrs. Olds tightly holding a faded photo of Sergeant Olds as a child. "She was just a toddler."

From that point on, Sergeant Olds didn't slow down.

"She worked from the time she was 16-years old," Mrs. Olds said.

Whether it was attending school at Gulf Coast Community College or completing the Senior NCO Academy, the sergeant was always learning and went on to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina.

"She always had her face in a book. She loved reading," said Sergeant Olds' mother. "You would hear her giggling in the bedroom. That was just a passion she loved and provided escape from the other kids."

As the oldest child, Sergeant Olds tried to find a balance between making her sisters behave and showing them a good time.

"She spoiled us rotten," said sister Christa Fox. "She tried to make us behave. I don't know how successful she was at that one."

Sergeant Olds also held a fondness for the emerald waters of the Gulf Coast, her family remembered.

"I remember when she went to see 'Jaws,' and I remember we couldn't get her to go to the beach after that," Ms. Fox said.

After completing community college, the reader, swimmer, sister and daughter signed the dotted line for her country.

"When she came in and told me she had enlisted in the Air Force, it just shocked me," Mrs. Olds said. "She felt like every young person should serve a certain amount of time."

Sergeant Olds spent nearly 20 years in Air Force traveling half way around the world, but most of her time was spent at Tyndall in various positions including as Chief of Protocol.

"She had been to Korea, Saudi Arabia and the Pentagon," said Delbert Olds, Sergeant Olds' father and former Airman 1st Class stationed at Tyndall from 1954 to 1958.

Sergeant Olds loved coming home to her family, bragged her mother.

"Sometimes we had a disagreement, but most of the time she just loved us and expressed it in so many different ways I can't even tell you," Mrs. Olds said.

Wherever Sergeant Olds went, she found a way to help others around her. While stationed in Korea, Sergeant Olds mentored an orphan girl by taking her to the movies and to plays, her mother said.

"When she had to leave, she made sure that little girl had an Air Force supporter," Mrs. Olds said. "She was very kind. She helped people out."

Leaders at Tyndall, where Sergeant Olds spent a dozen years of her career, dedicated a ballroom to the Panama City, Fla., native March 12 remembering the lives she touched in a small ceremony.

"I think it is fantastic," Mr. Olds said about the dedication. "She liked Tyndall."