AFA men's assistant coach killed in auto accident in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS • An Air Force communications officer and assistant men's gymnastics coach was killed and two others were injured Saturday night when their car passed another car, lost control and slammed into a tree, San Antonio police said.

A police report said the driver of a black Volkswagen Rabbit, Cory Torkelson, 24, failed to control his speed in the 11900 block of Blanco Road as he swerved to pass a red Honda Civic around 11:15 p.m. and overcorrected, driving into a tree.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Levi Torkelson, 29, the driver's brother, died at the scene. He served in both Pakistan and Iraq, helping set up the Air Force's interrogation unit there.

Cory Torkelson suffered severe injuries in the crash, the report said. He was in intensive care as of Sunday night at University Hospital.

Kate Green, Cory Torkelson's fiancée, also was in the car. She also was taken to University Hospital and was in stable condition.

Levi Torkelson, a decorated gymnast and a Bronze Star recipient, was entering his third season as an assistant coach with the Air Force Academy's men's gymnastics team. He rejoined the coaching staff at the beginning of the year after completing a six-month deployment to Iraq.

He served his first stint as an assistant coach at the academy after graduating from the school in 2001.

"He has done a fantastic job not only coaching the gymnastics team but as a physical education teacher," said Col. Billy Walker, deputy athletic director, who supervises Olympic sports, including gymnastics, and the physical education department at the academy. "He taught a lot of aquatic training. He was very well respected by the cadets, a great role model and mentor not only to the cadets he taught in his PE classes, but especially the cadet-athletes he coached on the gymnastics team.''

His father, Charles Torkelson, said his son was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq.

"What they were doing there is starting up the first Air Force interrogation squadron," he said. "You know, the Army normally does the interrogation and this was the Air Force filling in to relieve the Army. That was the initial cadre and for his service in that mission he received the Bronze Star."

"I've know him since 2001," Walker said. "We were excited to get him back for his second tour. It's great for the cadets to see an officer have operational things like he did.

He had a quiet, strong leadership style and was a tremendously hard worker and would do anything to contribute to our department and to the Air Force Academy mission of building leaders of character. It's a very sad day for the academy and Falcon athletics."

Charles Torkelson said Levi was a gymnast throughout most of his life, beginning at age 4. He got into the Air Force Academy largely through his gymnastics ability, recruited by the Air Force coach.

Levi Torkelson excelled on parallel bars as a cadet at the academy, becoming a two-time champion on the apparatus at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships, as well as a nine-time USAG All-American, according to the academy's Web site. He holds the school's record on parallel bars at 9.550.

After his first season as a coach at the academy, Torkelson spent four years stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, where he was a deputy flight commander for the Communications Control Center and Mission Systems Flight.

He was deployed twice while at Ramstein, spending four months as an executive officer in Jacobabad, Pakistan, and a year as the officer in charge for screening and property exploitation cells under the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center in Forward Operating Base Abu Ghraib and Victory Base Comply in Iraq.

Levi Torkelson, a 1997 graduate of MacArthur High School in Texas, also was awarded the USAFE Arthur S. Flemming Award, among others from the 435 and 86 communications squadrons.

"He was very thoughtful of other people's feelings and a very kind person," his father said.

"To me he just had so many good qualities I really couldn't think of any bad ones."

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