Hometown: Joelton, TN
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: A Company, 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion, Tennessee Army National Guard
Military Honors: Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Achievement Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Meritorious Service Medal
Date of Sacrifice: February 15, 2023 - near Huntsville, Alabama
Age: 39
Conflict: No declared conflict

Because his father was a general contractor, Daniel Wadham grew up knowing how to fix things. Daniel was born in Houston, Texas on September 29, 1983, to Tim and Debby (Lawson) Wadham. When Daniel was 11 years old, his family moved to Dover, Tennessee—near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, where Daniel graduated from Stewart County High School in 2002.

While living in Dover, Daniel met his future wife, Rosetta White at church. The two started dating in 2012 and married in August of 2021.

Daniel attended nearby Austin Peay State University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice/Homeland Security and a minor in Sociology. Preparing for a career in service, Wadham went on to earn a master’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University in Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement Administration, with a concentration in Advanced Counterterrorism and National Security.

Daniel and Rosetta, along with daughters Lillian and Scarlett, made their home in Joelton, a small community in the Tennessee forests, farmlands, and hills 15 miles north of Nashville.

Daniel did double-duty, protecting and serving as a police officer with the Metro Nashville Police Department and serving in the Tennessee Army National Guard. Both Daniel and his wife Rosetta served in the Guard.

“He enlisted me into the Army,” Rosetta told a reporter from The Tennessean. “We had been together for several years and since he was an officer, he was able to do a private enlistment ceremony—and he swore me in.”

Daniel entered the Guard as a Combat Engineer in May 2007, but later switched to Military Police as his specialty shortly after completing Airborne School. From 2009-2010, he was deployed with the 252nd Military Police Company in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was stationed at Forward Operating Base Delta, southeast of Baghdad.

After returning to the U.S., Wadham continued his service in the Tennessee Army National Guard. He completed Warrant Officer Candidate School at Fort Rucker, Alabama in June 2013. He then trained as a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot and graduated from flight school in August 2014.

CW3 Wadham was assigned to A Company, 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion, stationed at Berry Field National Guard Base in Nashville. In 2018, his battalion was deployed to Kosovo—a small, independent country in Europe’s Western Balkans. Kosovo had declared its independence from Serbia a decade earlier, and the United States poured humanitarian aid and military assistance into the emerging nation.

In addition to piloting his UH-60 Black Hawk in military and political conflicts, CW3 Wadham volunteered for multiple national emergency and humanitarian missions—including hurricane relief and COVID-19 health emergency support missions. By 2019, Wadham was serving his National Guard company as its Aviation Safety Officer.

On February 15, 2023, CW3 Wadham and fellow pilot CW3 Danny Randolph of Murfreesboro, Tennessee were conducting a routine training flight near Huntsville, Alabama. Their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was making its final approach when the crew encountered unexpected low cloud cover, which made visual flight conditions difficult.

According to the Army:

…the crew requested and was approved for radar vectors for an Instrument Landing System runway. At 2:57 p.m., the crew was instructed to descend from 4,000 feet to 3,000 feet Mean Sea Level by Huntsville approach control.

At 2:58 p.m., while in the descent to 3,000 feet MSL, Huntsville approach control instructed the crew to turn left to 270 degrees. Shortly after these instructions from Huntsville approach control, a low altitude warning was automatically triggered on approach control’s display.

The Black Hawk emerged from the bottom of the cloud layer in an “unrecoverable flight attitude.” Their aircraft rapidly descended and crashed to the ground. Both pilots were lost.

CW3 Daniel Lee Wadham was 39 years old. He was laid to rest with full military honors at Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery in Nashville. His daughter Lillian was 13, Scarlett 6 at the time of his loss.

Sources
Details submitted by Ms. Debby Wadham, CW3 Wadham’s Gold Star Mother, and Ms. Rosetta Wadham, Gold Star Wife
Tunnel to Towers Foundation: Daniel Lee Wadham
Blue Skies Foundation: CW3 Daniel L. Wadham
TN Department of the Military: Tennessee National Guard Names Soldiers in Fatal Helicopter Crash
AL.com News: Tennessee National Guardsman killed in Alabama helicopter crash identified
The Tennessean, Sep. 17, 2023: A mentor, father and husband: Helicopter crash victim Daniel Wadham remembered as a 'good man'
NewsChannel 5, Nashville: Black Hawk pilot flies home for the last time
Tennessee General Assembly: House Joint Resolution 273
LinkedIn: Daniel Wadham (personal profile)
Burial Site: Find a Grave