LAFAYETTE, CALIFORNIA – As you’ve dashed through Lafayette’s BART station on the way to work or perhaps a show in the city, you might have caught a glimpse of a small, beautifully-decorated memorial marker right by the station’s entrance.
It honors a fallen local solider. For Veteran’s Day, we wanted to highlight this local hero.
Senior Airman Jonathan Antonio Vega Yelner, a Lafayette native, died serving in Afghanistan in 2008.
Yelner grew up in Lafayette and graduated from De La Salle High School in Concord. He served in the U.S. Air Force with the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, based at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
Trained as a bomb loader, Yelner volunteered for a yearlong in-lieu-of tasking to drive Humvees with a Provincial Reconstruction Team that helped build roads, buildings, and water systems for Afghan communities. Colleagues recalled him as careful, upbeat, and the kind of airman who got things right the first time.
He was proud of his mixed Jewish and Puerto Rican background.
On April 29, 2008, while on a mission near Bagram, Afghanistan, the vehicle Yelner was driving hit an improvised explosive device. He died of his wounds at age 24. Local and national outlets reported the loss, and his home base at Ellsworth held a memorial service in his honor.
Yelner is buried at Oakmont Memorial Park. The headstone many residents have visited bears his full name and dates — a quiet reminder of the local cost of war.
On Veteran’s Day, let’s remember Yelner, and the sacrifices all members of our armed forces make.
