U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Ronald Ouellette, of Merrimack

LONDONDERRY – As tributes, condolences and warm memories poured in to those close to U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ronald Ouellette following his non-combat death in Kuwait last week, Sharon Morgan-Jones was looking to do “something more” for the young man who “was honestly beyond measure.”

Ouellette, known to many as “RJ,” was Morgan-Jones’s nephew, a 23-year-old Merrimack resident and Londonderry High School graduate who was coming up on his sixth year in the Air Force when tragedy struck on Sept. 14.

Ouellette was fatally injured in an all-terrain vehicle crash on the central Kuwaiti air base Ali Al Salem, where he and fellow members of his Massachusetts-based 42nd Aerial Port Squadron had recently been deployed.

“It’s an act of love,” Morgan-Jones, a Manchester resident, said Monday of her “Ribbons of Remembrance” project in her nephew’s honor.

She’s asking for donations of ribbons, roughly 10-12 inches long in any color donors choose, Morgan-Jones said. The ribbons will be affixed on either fencing or trees on the grounds of Londonderry High School once the site is chosen, she added.

Anyone who wishes to donate ribbons can drop them off at Londonderry High or mail them to Morgan-Jones at 369 Whittington St., Manchester, NH, 03104. She can be contacted at morgansj111@yahoo.com with any questions.

By donating ribbon, Morgan-Jones said, folks will be “making a gesture … to honor a fallen hero.”

The plan is to display the array of ribbons for a time, Morgan-Jones said, then collect them and make them into wreaths for the family, and to place at his grave.

The crash that claimed Ouellette’s life was the second such tragedy in as many days on the Ali Al Salem base.

Senior Airman Jason Khai Phan, who, like Ouellette, was recently deployed to Kuwait, also died in a vehicle crash. Officials said the incidents aren’t related, and “neither was the result of enemy or combat-related activity,” according to stripes.com, the Website for the military publication Stars and Stripes.

Ouellette was a member of the Air Force Reserve, serving as an air transportation specialist “responsible for ensuring the safety of people and cargo on military aircraft,” according to stripes.com.

In confirming Ouellette’s death, Col. Craig Peters, commander of the 439th Airlift Wing, called Ouellette “a valued member of the Patriot Wing,” and said “there are no words that can heal the pain his loss brings … the loss of our own, or any service member, is never easy.”

His military awards include an Air Force Achievement Medal, an Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, the Small Arms Expert (Rifle) Ribbon and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, according to stripes.com, which cited Ouellette’s Air Force biography.

Services for Ouellette are pending.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.