Yesterday was a fairly somber day at work, punctuated by the occasional visit of the kids from the day care center on the ground floor of our building trick or treating. Everyone was holding their breath and waiting to find out if they knew any of the aircrew involved in the crash off San Clemente Thursday night.
This morning I could tell from one of my friends' comments on Facebook that the names had finally been released to the press. After a few google searches, I found the following press release:
Coast Guard identifies 9 missing in midair crash
By The Associated Press (AP) – 24 minutes ago
The U.S. Coast Guard has identified nine people feared dead at sea following an air collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter.
The missing crew members from the Coast Guard C-130 are all stationed in Sacramento, Calif., where their aircraft was based. They are:
_ Lt. Cmdr. Che J. Barnes, 35, Capay, Calif., aircraft commander.
_ Lt. Adam W. Bryant, 28, Crewe, Va., co-pilot.
_ Chief Petty Officer John F. Seidman, 43, Stockton, Calif., flight engineer.
_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Carl P. Grigonis, 35, Mayfield Heights, Ohio, navigator.
_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Monica L. Beacham, 29, Decaturville, Tenn., radio operator.
_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason S. Moletzsky, 26, Norristown, Pa., air crew.
_ Petty Officer 3rd Class Danny R. Kreder II, 22, Elm Mott, Texas, drop master.
The missing crew members from the Marine Corps helicopter are:
_ Maj. Samuel Leigh, 35, Kennebec, Maine.
_ 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, 26, Douglas, Colo.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
I didn't know any of the people involved, which somehow gave me a temporary sense of relief. Then reality set in, and I started to think about what their families must be going through right now. They are proud that their loved ones perished in the service of their country, but they are anguished trying to imagine a future without them. My heart goes out to all the families involved.
When I was stationed in Massachusetts, I did two next of kin notifications. The first one I did was to tell the wife a fisherman that our C-130 flight had located the raft which held her husband and his crew. Their ship had gone up in flames, but they were able to get into the life raft in time, and after many hours of searching throughout the night, the C-130 crew located them, and a 110 foot patrol boat would be on scene within the hour. I called her at around 5am in the morning. I am sure that she hadn't slept the whole night. She was crying, I was choked up just trying to get the words out, but at least the outcome was good.
The second time I interacted directly with the family of someone who was missing at sea. I showed up at the house of the family affected, and showed them the charts of where we were looking, and explained all the efforts we were expending to find their loved one. That case did not have a happy ending, as later that day I had to explain that we were suspending the search because we had searched many hours past the predicted survivability of the missing man, given what he was wearing, his height and weight, and the temperature of the water. I kept my composure this time, but I was overwhelmed with sadness at having to break the bad news.
The search continues off California, but I fear that someone will be making those notifications sometime soon.
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