Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 40 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
‘…The Last Full Measure of Devotion’
“…these honored dead.”
Five of our finest young men were lost in the Eastern Mediterranean where they likely would never have been in the first place had it not been for the evil and incompetence of the current “administration.”
Here are the details:
The Pentagon on Monday identified the five U.S. service members who were killed when a military aircraft crashed Friday night while taking part in a training operation in the eastern Mediterranean.
The service members were identified Monday as: Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California; Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire; Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona; and Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minnesota.
All five were special operations aviation soldiers.
The Department of Defense said Monday that the fatal crash happened “during routine flight training” on Friday in the Mediterranean Sea.
“The MH-60 Blackhawk was conducting aerial refueling training when the aircraft experienced an in-flight emergency, resulting in the crash,” the release said. The aircraft and all five soldiers had been assigned to the first battalion in the 160th special operations aviation regiment, officials said.
“This is devastating news that reverberates across the entire Special Operations community. Every loss is tough, but in this case, service to the Nation is truly a family business and it’s hard to express the amount of sorrow that we all feel right now,” Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, said in a statement.
The rest of the tragic story is here.
I write this in an attempt to keep the memory of their service alive and, to the tiny extent I am able to do so, assure that they will not be forgotten quickly as are so many of our men and women who serve in harm’s way.
I also shudder to think of what may be coming our way with regard to China’s determined intention to invade Taiwan within the next couple of years if not sooner, and find especially frightening the prospect that the dictator Xi may be thinking (probably?) the coming year may be his last, best chance to take advantage of our poor, spineless, pusillanimous, “woke,” beaten, damaged “leadership” and the devastation it has wreaked upon our military.
May God rest and comfort their souls and may light perpetual shine upon them.
Published in General
Yes it’s tragic, but military people die in training accidents every year. Last time I checked, it’s a higher number than the US military deaths in Afghanistan had been over several years.
Their parents, wives and children don’t really care about statistics now.
And they were probably “training” for a mission.
Good job, Jim George, of attempting to keep their memory alive. May God bless them and heal their loved ones’ remorse.
Amen.
As to the comment by @kedavis rather than attempt any kind of rejoinder I’ll simply note this was my way of noting sadness at the passing of such fine young men; I 100% agree with your observation about their families.
Of course, but…
They’re always training to be ready for various tasks, including in-flight refueling etc.
Many search results now are referring to this latest incident, so it’s harder to track down general numbers, but one result I found showed that there were 24 training deaths last year just for the Army.
We don’t know these men, but we know a lot of their sailor and Marine brothers. Their faces show the joy of their lives and what their families will miss forever. The SOF teams really are Special.
God bless those men and their families. This news was soul crushing. My son spent some time with their company last year providing an After Action Review about Niger for Professional Development. He’s devastated – said they were a great bunch despite not knowing them personally.
NSDQ