CG-6535 Memorial Dedication Ceremony: March 1, 2013
Video of Lt. j.g. Andrew Bacon performs "Amazing Grace" during the CG-6535 memorial dedication ceremony at U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile on March 1, 2013.
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U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Kelly Parker designed this graphic to memorialize the crew of the Coast Guard helicopter CG-6535, which crashed in Mobile Bay on Feb. 28, 2012.
(U.S. Coast Guard)
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MOBILE, Alabama – A major part of remembering those lost in tragedy is ensuring the honor of their memory in the future.
Such
was the message on Friday, March 1, at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Mobile
Aviation Center as the memorial to the crew of CG-6535 was dedicated.
Hundreds turned out for the private ceremony, which honored pilot Lt.
Cmdr. Dale Taylor, co-pilot Lt. j.g. Thomas Cameron, rescue swimmer
Chief Petty Officer Fernando Jorge, and flight mechanic Petty Officer
3rd Class Andrew "Drew" Knight.
The four were killed when their MH-65C helicopter crashed into Mobile Bay on Feb. 28, 2012, after a training exercise.
Standing
several yards in front of the memorial – an impressive granite monolith
etched with images and biographies of the men and topped with a silver
replica of the MH-65C – speakers from ATC Mobile commanding officer
Capt. Tom Maine to Adm. Robert J. Papp, Jr., commandant of the Coast
Guard, spoke about the monument’s place on the training center campus.
The
CG-6535 monument is situated only a few feet from the newly rededicated
memorial to the crew of CG-1427, an HH-52A helicopter, who were killed
31 years ago on Oct. 22, 1981 during a nighttime training mission.
“(This
monument) is our promise, our covenant, that those men will never be
forgotten by the men and women of ATC Mobile,” Maine said. “We will
remember (the CG-65-35 crew) 31 years from now, and 31 years after
that.”
Ramrod
straight in his dress blues, and yet speaking with the delicate
compassion of experience, Maine described his lost men thusly:
Lt. Cmdr. Dale Taylor:
“(He) was a wonderful father and husband. A great aviator who loved to
fly and loved to teach others to fly; who did both very well. A
dedicated man of God who loved his friends and family deeply; who would
literally give the shirt off his back to someone in need.”
Lt. j.g. Thomas Cameron:
“A gifted athlete and natural leader. A talented pilot full of promise;
a young man who pursued excellence and adventure in everything he did.
And, most importantly . . . the best friend anyone could ever have. A
friend who was always looking out for others and looking for someone to
help.”
Chief Petty Officer Fernando Jorge:
“A man who absolutely loved life, who embraced it for all it was worth.
A man with a huge and ever-growing circle of friends who loved his job
as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer immensely; who loved teaching and
mentoring those who were junior to him even more. A great brother,
mentor, teacher, uncle and friend.”
Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew "Drew" Knight:
“A mature and gifted young man that absolutely found his place in the
Coast Guard. But at the same time remained firmly rooted in the
small-town values he learned from his family. A hard working and
talented performer as both a maintenance technician and a flight
mechanic. We will remember him as the one everyone wanted to be like,
and everyone wanted as a friend.”
Maine’s comments were followed
by messages of thanks by friends and family of the crewmembers, as those
seated under a massive white tent, and the crowd standing silent
outside it, looked beyond the small stage and onto the eastern knoll
bearing the two memorials.
What once was perhaps the ugliest part
of the ATC Mobile campus, Maine said, had been transformed into a
beautiful and hallowed ground, forever linked to the best of those
remembered.
Such memorials are part of the “manners of our profession,” said Adm. Papp, who began his remarks by thanking Maine and his wife for helping lead the unit through such a tragedy.
“How can any memorial compete with ones we’ve built within our minds and within our hearts?” Papp asked rhetorically. “One (reason) is to give substance to those memories; something physical we can reach out and touch and see, to bring together the thoughts and feelings of those brave men and cement it together with the respect and admiration that we all feel.”
That respect and admiration was displayed with utmost symbolism at the ceremony’s conclusion.
Standing in the empty space between the crowd and the memorial knoll, Lt. j.g. Andrew Bacon – a friend of CG-6535 co-pilot Cameron – performed a stirring rendition of “Amazing Grace” on his bagpipes. Halfway through the piece, the roar of rotors reached the training center as 4 MH-65 helicopters executed a formation flyover a few hundred feet above.
They moved from east to west, then north to south, completing a cross before a perfect runway landing nearby – four sentinels achieving rest, linked forever to those honored both in polished stone and human spirit.
Story, photos, video: http://blog.al.com
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