Brigadier General Rand, Colonel Renfrow, Colonel Dennis, Chief Dearduff and the entire 332EFS, thank you for your support during this time.  To the STINGERS, the 180FW/112thEFS, the best Guard Unit in the world; there are many words, thoughts, and stories about our beloved friend and fellow warrior Major Kevin Sonnenberg and we all have our own memories and stories of him.  I won’t be able to cover all of them in this speech, but I will touch on a few that we as a unit knew about. We each are brought on this earth to fulfill a duty, and walk a path that we each carve, Kevin’s was to be a part of each of you, our family, and to touch each one of our lives in a certain way.

Major Kevin Henry Sonnenberg, born to Marvin and Barbara Sonnenberg on 10 February 1965, brother to Vicki, Diana, and Jennifer; beloved husband to Lorin Sonnenberg and Step-Father to Carson Orr.  Kevin joined our Guard family on 20 July 1990, and is known to us only as “SONNY”. 

Sonny flew for Delta Airlines, as a Fighter Pilot with the 112FS, formerly with Owens-Corning, and also seemed to find time to farm with his father.  As a member of our unit he held various positions the last as the 112th Fighter Squadron C Flight Commander.  Sonny had an incredible history with our unit, joining us as a non-prior military person and finishing with distinction and honor serving our country in the war on terror.  As we all know he was a man of honor, trust, and an incredible work ethic, he was one of the only people I knew who was able to work three jobs.  Along the way and with many deployments we are always able to remember stories about certain situations people happen to find themselves in.  Well Sonny was no exception to this rule.  His history includes a trip to Guam where he was involved in a “Hush Run”; ORI’s to Alpena and participating in “River Walks” and “River Tosses”, while in Turkey during Operation Northern Watch where he was our Brit Bar BBQ-grill Bonfire monitor, and when he had to remind a fellow pilot about the true identity of the State Championship wrestling participant.  He was always a leader of squadron songs and the authority figure in teaching every squadron pilot Henry County 3-1 terminology.  We are all aware of the “River Club” at Alpena and how it is an important part of each ORI.  At the club we would take any “Newbie” or “First-Timer” out to the river for a river dunk, basically throwing this poor person in the river.  It was your Alpena Baptism. Sonny was always a leader in pointing out the people who needed to be dunked and usually designated an official group as the official “Dunking” team.  For the folks who might be wondering about the Henry County 3-1 Comm;  there is a reference book for all pilots that lists certain code words that we use during flight, one is used if we are having an issue with our radar, we usually state: “Gadget Bent” or “Gadget Sick”.  Well Sonny just liked to be a straight shooter and explain it in certain terms; he was much more comfortable saying: “Hey my radar just took a dump”.  By saying this I am sure he knew we all understood what he meant.  His last code word happened during his brief for our trip over here.  He was describing how getting eight aircraft together with a tanker at night was going to be a huge “Daboggle”  It took us a second , but we all realized he meant “Debacle”.  This was Sonny and how he expressed himself, somehow we were all on the same page and understood what he meant, what he wanted to do, and how it was going to get accomplished.

There is a quote that most if not all in the squadron know and or say: “If Sonny can do it so can I”.  This may seem like a humorous dig on him, but rather it is a testament to his work ethic and how we showed our respect to him.  We all knew how hard Sonny worked at everything he did and we all know that we needed to work as hard if not harder to accomplish the same task.   

There was a group of us who were able to have dinner with Sonny last Thursday, the most pilots I have seen together at chow at the same time, so we were fortunate to be able to break bread with our brother one last time.  The man was extremely happy and content, this I am sure was due to his honest approach on everything in life and that he never took anything for granted. Don’t take this situation as an end, I know Sonny still lives-on with each of us, and don’t forget he would never want our dedication towards each other, our unit family, or our mission to be forgotten.  Sonny would want us to work as damn hard as he always did and to accomplish the goal and he will lead us to it.

In closing, Sonny, to a true friend, fighter pilot, defender of freedom, but most importantly hero: GOD SPEED

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