SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- A Colorado Springs pilot was one of two crew members killed when their North Carolina-based Air Force fighter jet crashed in eastern Afghanistan over the weekend.

A Department of Defense statement released Sunday identified the two as 27-year-old Capt. Thomas J. Gramith of Eagan, Minn., and 26-year-old Capt. Mark R. McDowell of Colorado Springs, Colo. Both were assigned to the 336th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina.

The military said an F-15E Strike Eagle crashed around 6:15 p.m. EDT Friday evening in Kabul. They had been flying for several hours, providing air support to ground troops in the Ghazni Province when their plane went down.

The F-15E is a two-seat fighter-bomber version of the frontline aircraft. McDowell was the pilot of the aircraft, and Gramith was the rear-seat weapons officer.

McDowell was a graduate of the Air Force Academy. His wife is also in the Air Force, serving on a deployment to Iraq. The couple would have been married for two years this Thanksgiving.

The 336th Fighter Squadron's F-15E Strike Eagle jets and about 300 personnel, including air and ground crews, deployed from the North Carolina base in April for a four-month tour of duty.

The cause of the crash hasn't been released, but military officials have said it was from non-hostile action. F-15s fly in pairs, so another jet was alongside the plane during the crash.

Military officials in Afghanistan are investigating the crash. An investigation usually takes 30-45 days but because of the remoteness of the location and its proximity to a war zone, this investigation could take longer, authorities said.

No fighter jets have crashed in Afghanistan in years. Militants are able to shoot down helicopters with rockets, but are not known to have the anti-aircraft weaponry necessary to bring down a high-flying jet.

Afghan authorities said the plane went down in the Nawur district of Ghazni province in central Afghanistan -- a peaceful area populated by the ethnic Hazara minority.

Mohammed Qasim Naziri, the deputy district chief, said the crash site was between two villages in a desert surrounded by mountains about 20 miles south of the town of Nawur.

He said local people notified police of the crash but by the time authorities reached the site U.S. troops had surrounded the area and barred Afghan authorities from approaching the wreckage.

The bodies of McDowell and Gramith were recovered by U.S. and Coalition forces and flown to Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., Sunday.

Their deaths brought to 50 the number of international service members killed in Afghanistan in July, already the deadliest month of the war for NATO forces.

McDowell was the 11th Air Force Academy graduate to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.