thedrifter
10-27-04, 06:37 AM
November 01, 2004
Osprey victims’ families look to build memorial
Project, potential site await Corps officials’ approval
By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer
The families of eight Marines killed in two MV-22 Osprey crashes four years ago want to use black granite, marble and steel to memorialize their fallen sons and husbands as pioneers of aviation.
Members of the Osprey Memorial Foundation are raising $100,000 to build a memorial to the four Osprey pilots and the four enlisted aircrew members killed in separate crashes in 2000, one near Marana, Ariz., in April, followed by another near Camp Lejeune, N.C., in December. They say they hope the memorial will be built somewhere near Quantico, Va., by 2006, the same year the Corps plans to establish the first operational squadron of the tilt-rotor aircraft.
“They were pioneers for a new program in the Corps and I think they deserve a monument,” said Anne Murphy, director of the foundation and mother of Lt. Col. Michael Murphy, who co-piloted the Osprey in the December crash.
The two crashes killed a total of 23 Marines and grounded the aircraft for nearly 18 months. But the monument would be dedicated only to the pilots and aircrew of the two aircraft and will not include the 15 Marine passengers killed in the Arizona crash.
The Osprey Memorial Foundation is raising much of its own funds but is seeking approval from the Corps to erect the memorial, a black granite tower that would stand about 12 feet tall, with hands that hold up a pair of aviator wings, one enlisted and one officer.
“Once all the concerned parties, branches and installations have evaluated the estimated cost and proposed locations associated with the monument, the gift offer will be forwarded up the chain of command through the commandant of the Marine Corps to the secretary of the Navy for his consideration,” Maj. Nat Fahy, a spokesman for Marine Corps headquarters, said in a statement.
Backers have suggested the memorial be built near the chapel at Quantico, but that site was deemed inappropriate because the area is used as a practice field for sports and parades, an official said. Other proposed sites include the new Marine Corps Heritage Center outside Quantico’s main gate in Triangle, Va.
The memorial is being designed by former Marine and Vietnam veteran Carl Jones of Birmingham, Ala. Jones wrote a song he dedicated to the victims of the crashes called “The Few, the Proud With Wings.”
Words from the song may be inscribed in the monument, Murphy said.
For the families of the dead, the memorial could bring closure to a painful chapter in Marine Corps aviation history.
It would be the first memorial dedicated specifically to the Marines attached to the Osprey program who died flying the experimental aircraft.
The Osprey, which takes off like a helicopter and tilts its rotors to fly like an airplane, has been plagued with technical and political problems.
After the second crash in 2000, the Corps grounded the aircraft to address its technical issues. A highly publicized scandal involving the falsification of maintenance records at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., in early 2001, added to the program’s problems.
In addition to a memorial dedicated this summer to the Camp Pendleton, Calif., Marines killed in the Arizona crash, North Carolina Department of Transportation officials are weighing a proposal to rename a bridge in the heart of Jacksonville, N.C., in memory of all the Osprey crash victims. The name of the bridge would single out Maj. Brooks Gruber, who co-piloted the Osprey in the Arizona crash.
Such memorials help a lot of the families, some of whom still struggle with their loss, Murphy said.
“It’s a good thing to do with grief, it’s something positive,” she said.
For more information about the Osprey memorial online, visit www.ospreymemorial.com.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-462777.php
Ellie
Osprey victims’ families look to build memorial
Project, potential site await Corps officials’ approval
By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer
The families of eight Marines killed in two MV-22 Osprey crashes four years ago want to use black granite, marble and steel to memorialize their fallen sons and husbands as pioneers of aviation.
Members of the Osprey Memorial Foundation are raising $100,000 to build a memorial to the four Osprey pilots and the four enlisted aircrew members killed in separate crashes in 2000, one near Marana, Ariz., in April, followed by another near Camp Lejeune, N.C., in December. They say they hope the memorial will be built somewhere near Quantico, Va., by 2006, the same year the Corps plans to establish the first operational squadron of the tilt-rotor aircraft.
“They were pioneers for a new program in the Corps and I think they deserve a monument,” said Anne Murphy, director of the foundation and mother of Lt. Col. Michael Murphy, who co-piloted the Osprey in the December crash.
The two crashes killed a total of 23 Marines and grounded the aircraft for nearly 18 months. But the monument would be dedicated only to the pilots and aircrew of the two aircraft and will not include the 15 Marine passengers killed in the Arizona crash.
The Osprey Memorial Foundation is raising much of its own funds but is seeking approval from the Corps to erect the memorial, a black granite tower that would stand about 12 feet tall, with hands that hold up a pair of aviator wings, one enlisted and one officer.
“Once all the concerned parties, branches and installations have evaluated the estimated cost and proposed locations associated with the monument, the gift offer will be forwarded up the chain of command through the commandant of the Marine Corps to the secretary of the Navy for his consideration,” Maj. Nat Fahy, a spokesman for Marine Corps headquarters, said in a statement.
Backers have suggested the memorial be built near the chapel at Quantico, but that site was deemed inappropriate because the area is used as a practice field for sports and parades, an official said. Other proposed sites include the new Marine Corps Heritage Center outside Quantico’s main gate in Triangle, Va.
The memorial is being designed by former Marine and Vietnam veteran Carl Jones of Birmingham, Ala. Jones wrote a song he dedicated to the victims of the crashes called “The Few, the Proud With Wings.”
Words from the song may be inscribed in the monument, Murphy said.
For the families of the dead, the memorial could bring closure to a painful chapter in Marine Corps aviation history.
It would be the first memorial dedicated specifically to the Marines attached to the Osprey program who died flying the experimental aircraft.
The Osprey, which takes off like a helicopter and tilts its rotors to fly like an airplane, has been plagued with technical and political problems.
After the second crash in 2000, the Corps grounded the aircraft to address its technical issues. A highly publicized scandal involving the falsification of maintenance records at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., in early 2001, added to the program’s problems.
In addition to a memorial dedicated this summer to the Camp Pendleton, Calif., Marines killed in the Arizona crash, North Carolina Department of Transportation officials are weighing a proposal to rename a bridge in the heart of Jacksonville, N.C., in memory of all the Osprey crash victims. The name of the bridge would single out Maj. Brooks Gruber, who co-piloted the Osprey in the Arizona crash.
Such memorials help a lot of the families, some of whom still struggle with their loss, Murphy said.
“It’s a good thing to do with grief, it’s something positive,” she said.
For more information about the Osprey memorial online, visit www.ospreymemorial.com.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-462777.php
Ellie