thedrifter
03-24-07, 06:56 AM
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Marine and Navy air crew members memorialized
A granite monument bearing 88 names, including those of 24 killed in the Iraq war, is unveiled at Camp Pendleton.
By VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register
CAMP PENDLETONMichele Linn slowly ran her fingers across the name etched on solid black granite.
White A.D.
Her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Aaron White with Marine Aircraft Group 39, was killed in a helicopter crash May 19, 2003, about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad in an accident.
His name, along with those of 23 Marines and Navy air crew members killed in Iraq, were etched on a granite monument unveiled Friday at Camp Pendleton after a memorial service.
Eighty-eight names appear on the marker, memorializing those killed in combat and during training from Marine Aircraft Group 39, based at Camp Pendleton, and reserve Marine Aircraft Group 46 Detachment A, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
As Linn touched the Navy aviator wings hand-carved on top of the roughly 9-by-4 shrine, her 4-year-old daughter, Brianna White, clung to its sides, repeatedly saying, "Daddy."
Linn, 31, a college student from Bonsall, about 50 miles north of San Diego, said she attended Friday's ceremony more for her daughter. The little girl, who ran around with her father's dog tags wrapped around her left hand, will remember this one, Linn believes.
"I had my closure and acceptance, but since Brianna is older now … I wanted her to see it. All the memorials we've been to in the past, she was a baby," she said.
Names of nine squadrons from the aircraft groups were called out, and Marines placed dog tags on the grips of upside down M-16s that stood behind pairs of boots. An air-crew helmet topped each gun.
A bell was rung as each name was read. As a Marine carrying the dog tags marched toward an M-16 in the ground, the sounds of birds chirping mixed with the hum of machinery from a nearby building.
In a salute to the fallen service members, seven Marines fired a volley of three shots each before a lone bugler played taps.
Then, under clear blue skies, three helicopters that Marine Aircraft Group 39 uses for attacks and utility support, including casualty evacuations, did a flyover above roughly 250 Marines, Navy personnel and relatives gathered for the service.
Words are inadequate to describe the sacrifice made by the 88 air-group members who have died since 1980, Col. Patrick Gough, commanding officer for Marine Aircraft Group 39, told the audience.
"In this particular case, they're almost a gilding of the lily, because the beautiful black granite memorial itself is simultaneously mute but eloquent testimony to the vastness of the sacrifice of these courageous men and women," he said.
After the 30-minute ceremony, Gough said it was good to have a monument completed for all of the Marine and Navy air crews who died in combat and training.
"Most of the people in the crowd were old, retired MAG-39 folks that had been waiting for this for years – waiting for some kind of permanent memorial to the people we have lost out of the air group," he said.
Gough joined the Marine air group in 1981, soon after its first member died, and said he personally knew 65 of the 88 people whose names are on the memorial.
"We had to do something," he said, standing before the marker in an area shaded with trees next to offices and a chaplain building.
Three granite benches with air-squadron insignias chiseled on the front have been placed nearby in full view of the monument.
Jessica Pfister, 27, plans to take her lunch and sit on one of the benches in days and months to come. She will feel closer to her Marine husband, Travis, also 27, a crew chief on a CH-46E Sea Knight. He was killed when his helicopter was shot down over Karma, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, on Feb. 7.
"He's home when he's here," said Pfister, who has been in the Marines for nine years and was her husband's recruiter when he rejoined in 2003. She found the ceremony both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Linn, meanwhile, is coping day by day with her husband's death.
Aaron White, 27, had been in the service nine years and had been deployed three months when he was killed.
White and Linn thought the war would be like the Gulf War – short-lived. They never contemplated what would happen if White died.
Linn still cries – when her daughter asks why other dads take children to preschool and her father does not, why her dad is only there in a photograph or why other kids get to hug their fathers and she does not.
"It's hard for her," Linn said.
Contact the writer: 949-465-5424 or vjolly@ocregister.com
Marine Aircraft Group 39
About 3,500 men and women serve in the 10 squadrons under Marine Aircraft Group 39, based at Camp Pendleton
The group was activated in April 1968 at Quang Tri Airfield, Republic of Vietnam, as Provisional Marine Aircraft Group 39. It is now part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Twenty-three aircraft-group personnel have died in the Iraq war.
Learn more: www.3maw.usmc.mil/mag39/default.asp
The aircraft group controls the activities of more than 4,000 Marines with 75 assigned aircraft at four sites. Since 1990, subordinate units have deployed more than 100 times on unit training deployments, detachments and annual training.
Its missions are organizing, training and equipping individual Marines and combat-ready squadrons, and augmenting and reinforcing the active component.
Read more: www.mfr.usmc.mil/4thmaw/mag46/deta/
SOURCE: U.S. Marine Corps
Ellie
Marine and Navy air crew members memorialized
A granite monument bearing 88 names, including those of 24 killed in the Iraq war, is unveiled at Camp Pendleton.
By VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register
CAMP PENDLETONMichele Linn slowly ran her fingers across the name etched on solid black granite.
White A.D.
Her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Aaron White with Marine Aircraft Group 39, was killed in a helicopter crash May 19, 2003, about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad in an accident.
His name, along with those of 23 Marines and Navy air crew members killed in Iraq, were etched on a granite monument unveiled Friday at Camp Pendleton after a memorial service.
Eighty-eight names appear on the marker, memorializing those killed in combat and during training from Marine Aircraft Group 39, based at Camp Pendleton, and reserve Marine Aircraft Group 46 Detachment A, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
As Linn touched the Navy aviator wings hand-carved on top of the roughly 9-by-4 shrine, her 4-year-old daughter, Brianna White, clung to its sides, repeatedly saying, "Daddy."
Linn, 31, a college student from Bonsall, about 50 miles north of San Diego, said she attended Friday's ceremony more for her daughter. The little girl, who ran around with her father's dog tags wrapped around her left hand, will remember this one, Linn believes.
"I had my closure and acceptance, but since Brianna is older now … I wanted her to see it. All the memorials we've been to in the past, she was a baby," she said.
Names of nine squadrons from the aircraft groups were called out, and Marines placed dog tags on the grips of upside down M-16s that stood behind pairs of boots. An air-crew helmet topped each gun.
A bell was rung as each name was read. As a Marine carrying the dog tags marched toward an M-16 in the ground, the sounds of birds chirping mixed with the hum of machinery from a nearby building.
In a salute to the fallen service members, seven Marines fired a volley of three shots each before a lone bugler played taps.
Then, under clear blue skies, three helicopters that Marine Aircraft Group 39 uses for attacks and utility support, including casualty evacuations, did a flyover above roughly 250 Marines, Navy personnel and relatives gathered for the service.
Words are inadequate to describe the sacrifice made by the 88 air-group members who have died since 1980, Col. Patrick Gough, commanding officer for Marine Aircraft Group 39, told the audience.
"In this particular case, they're almost a gilding of the lily, because the beautiful black granite memorial itself is simultaneously mute but eloquent testimony to the vastness of the sacrifice of these courageous men and women," he said.
After the 30-minute ceremony, Gough said it was good to have a monument completed for all of the Marine and Navy air crews who died in combat and training.
"Most of the people in the crowd were old, retired MAG-39 folks that had been waiting for this for years – waiting for some kind of permanent memorial to the people we have lost out of the air group," he said.
Gough joined the Marine air group in 1981, soon after its first member died, and said he personally knew 65 of the 88 people whose names are on the memorial.
"We had to do something," he said, standing before the marker in an area shaded with trees next to offices and a chaplain building.
Three granite benches with air-squadron insignias chiseled on the front have been placed nearby in full view of the monument.
Jessica Pfister, 27, plans to take her lunch and sit on one of the benches in days and months to come. She will feel closer to her Marine husband, Travis, also 27, a crew chief on a CH-46E Sea Knight. He was killed when his helicopter was shot down over Karma, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, on Feb. 7.
"He's home when he's here," said Pfister, who has been in the Marines for nine years and was her husband's recruiter when he rejoined in 2003. She found the ceremony both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Linn, meanwhile, is coping day by day with her husband's death.
Aaron White, 27, had been in the service nine years and had been deployed three months when he was killed.
White and Linn thought the war would be like the Gulf War – short-lived. They never contemplated what would happen if White died.
Linn still cries – when her daughter asks why other dads take children to preschool and her father does not, why her dad is only there in a photograph or why other kids get to hug their fathers and she does not.
"It's hard for her," Linn said.
Contact the writer: 949-465-5424 or vjolly@ocregister.com
Marine Aircraft Group 39
About 3,500 men and women serve in the 10 squadrons under Marine Aircraft Group 39, based at Camp Pendleton
The group was activated in April 1968 at Quang Tri Airfield, Republic of Vietnam, as Provisional Marine Aircraft Group 39. It is now part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Twenty-three aircraft-group personnel have died in the Iraq war.
Learn more: www.3maw.usmc.mil/mag39/default.asp
The aircraft group controls the activities of more than 4,000 Marines with 75 assigned aircraft at four sites. Since 1990, subordinate units have deployed more than 100 times on unit training deployments, detachments and annual training.
Its missions are organizing, training and equipping individual Marines and combat-ready squadrons, and augmenting and reinforcing the active component.
Read more: www.mfr.usmc.mil/4thmaw/mag46/deta/
SOURCE: U.S. Marine Corps
Ellie