Originally Posted by
Choke
Something that I think many people forget is that not all who make the ultimate sacrifice do so during wartime. Training for war is dangerous and sometimes things go wrong.
On 20 March 1989 a CH-53 crashed near Pohang, South Korea during Team Spirit (an annual exercise). 18 Marines and 1 Navy Corpsman lost their lives in that crash and a number of others were seriously injured. The Marines being transported were members of Charlie Co, 1st BN 5th Marines and in 1988 I had left Bravo Co 1/5 for other duties. I knew 4 of the people on that helo; LT. Wooten had been my old Plt Commander/XO, LCpl Gomez had been in my PLT, LCpl Pesuti was a friend from ITS and PFC Decker had been in another PLT in my Company.
RIP Kevin Wooten and Kurt Decker.
A full list of the names is at -
https://usmcronbo.tripod.com/id98.htm
It was a repeat of a CH-46 crash during Team Spirit in early 1984, US Marines and ROK Marines were killed, in the fog, just after departing Pohang. My LT wanted to take the 2nd bird. The 1st bird crashed. We stopped, called in assistance and went and finished the mission.
The development of the Osprey was a jobs program across 7 states. It killed a lot of Marines. They held a 5k in their honor, like that would do it.
I flew into Gander Bay once and thought, “what a desolate place to die.” Dozens of soldiers died there a few months later when their transport crashed.
Every deployment to 29 Palms was deadly. We called it 29 Psalms. It was established so gas victims could die in dry desert air, but the sons of guns lived, so they put a base there to kill the rest of us. I watched an AV-8 fly directly into a target tank, no ejection. A Sgt I knew was killed by friendly live fire, the Corpsman who crawled up to him nearly so.
I was scared to death of APC’s. The looked like coffins with six big wheels.
But we we safer than when we were off duty.