I don’t have much to add to the discourse on this Memorial Day. In the past 14 Years I have written a good number of posts honoring the event. You can read some of the better ones here, here, here, and here.
I can also point you to a list of Citadel Graduates who have fallen in the line of duty here.
I’ve read and heard all the instructions not to “thank a veteran for his service” which I agree with.
I have also been starkly reminded of those brave pilots, NFO’s and enlisted Aircrew who perished in E-2 Aircraft mishaps.
There are several omissions that need to be added:
VAW-123, USS Forrestal, E-2A, Mediterranean Sea, October 16, 1969, Lost at Sea in a bolter…. LCDR Paul Martin Wright, LCDR James Leo Delaney, LTjg Howard Booth Rutledge.
LT John Gore (VAW 126, VR-48) Crash at Dothan, Alabama 15 Nov 85
There is a good website with a list of C-2 mishaps and lost souls here.
An E-2A crashed in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1970. 5 people perished. I cannot find the names.
VAW-120- 1973 Crashed in the water just off Ocean View (Norfolk). Lt. Walter J. MacLeod Jr., Lt. Cmdr. Randall M. Moore, Lt. Edward W. Cassel, Lt. Arthur T. Dunn, Ens. Howard E. Wagoner.
VAW-125, early 1978. Elevator disconnect accident over Supply, NC. LCDR’s Ken llgenfritz, Tom Davis and LT Jim Beamer. Two “guest” CVW-1 aircrew also perished.
VAW-115, NF603… Aug, 1985… LT(jg) Kevin Kuhnig and Ens Chris Mims, Lost at sea
LT Tom Waterbury, VAW-117. Killed in a T-2C mishap.
LT John Brown Dec 5th, 1994. T-34C. Former C-2 driver.
It is still not a complete list- but its the best I can research tonight.
Which brings me back to what is on my mind this Memorial Day. It is the prevailing thought for me this year and is one I wrote several years ago.
If we seek to honor the sacrifices of the brave Soldiers, Sailors, Airman and Marines who have fallen today-we must also ask ourselves what are we doing to make this country a better place to live for their children and their families. For in the end, that was what they were fighting to defend, a free society that improves itself, not simply falls back into the evils they fought so hard to protect us from.
It is line with the question I keep asking myself again and again, “What was it all for?” I still don’t have a good answer, but it certainly was not to see the American Democracy come under threat from within.
Remember the Fallen!