Pat Ardaiz, VAW-124, March 25, 1993
My friend, and fellow Naval Flight Officer, Patrick Ardaiz died in a Navy plane crash on March 25, 1993. He, along with four other crew members in their E-2C "Hawkeye" crashed somewhere in the Ionian sea while returning to their aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt. They had just completed a mission supporting humanitarian relief activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He was 28 years old. I think he may have told me once that that made him the oldest guy on his aircrew.
It's kind of like that, huh? The folks we honor on days such as tomorrow's Memorial Day tend to be all too young.
The aircrews of VP-50, March 22, 1991
Consider another list. The 27 names below were also colleagues who all died on a Thursday morning at 2:26 a.m. March 22, 1991.
That morning, two P-3 "Orion" submarine-hunter airplanes collided with each other about 20 miles off the coast of San Diego while conducting a "swap." A procedure where one aircraft hands-off the tracking of a submarine, and associated data, to another airplane.
(Stock video. Courtesy: otonobubu, YouTube)
They were all from the same squadron, "VP-50". For any of you who may not be familiar with the scale that implies, think of the impact 27 people will have in a small branch office of about 130-ish, or so, folks. It's devastating.
My thanks to the webmasters of the VP-50 Memorial section of the U.S. Navy Patrol Squadrons web site. With their help, I'd like to let you know about the following:
- Ray D. Beckner, 29
- Ronald L. Carmody, 27
- John Cavuoto, 22
- Brian M. Cerino, 21
- David G. Chaikin, 25
- Martin B. Cox, 27
- Richard A. Dabbs, 22
- Christoher D. Davis, 20
- Jimmy W. Dyer, 31
- Dennis G. Farquhar, Jr., 20
- Michael L. Germeau, 22
- Randall D. Hall, Jr., 25
- Mark D. Hamilton, 26
- Daryl J. Helkkinen, 31
- Warren J. Hogue, 22
- Thomas McNerney, Jr., 30
- Ned W. Metcalf, 26
- Robert A. Nemecek, 33
- Dorsey C. Owens, Jr., 19
- Dennis L. Redmond, 26
- Michael A. Rice, 23
- James B. Shields, 26
- Daniel W. Smith, 27
- Francis A. Sposato, 30
- Richard Tafoya, 21
- Stephen A. Tisdale, 39
- Jay A. Williamson, 27
How many others died in service of the United States of America
On top of the 1 + 27 service members listed above, the numbers haven't stopped. iCasualties.org tallies, as of this writing, 4,300 reported service members have lost their lives from service in Iraq, and 686 were reported from service in Afghanistan.
With those kinds of numbers, the faces start getting fuzzy. Especially when you try to comprehend all the service members who lost their lives from other wars:
- World War I: 116,516*
- Wordl War II: 405,399*
- Korean War: 54,246*
- Vietnam War: 90,209*
Going further back...
- American Revolution (1775-1783): 4,435
- War of 1812 (1812-1815): 2,260
- Indian wars (1817-1898): 1,000
- Mexican war (1846-1848): 13,283*
- Civil war (1861-1865): 780,213*
- Spanish-American war (1898-1902): 2,446*
(*Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, November 2008. Includes battle deaths, other in-theater and non-theater deaths.)
Outside of the 28 faces I know, I regret it would be impossible to know the rest. So, instead, I try to focus on the quality, character, values and courage represented in the 1,474,993 + 27 + 1 honored souls.
God bless you. And, while a word seems profoundly small compared to the price paid, I'll say it anyway: thank you for your service.
For the rest of us: If you're reading this on a Memorial Day weekend (this one or any of the future ones), find a service member today: Shake her hand, buy him lunch, pat them on the back. I can pretty much guarantee there are few things you will do this week that will command such a huge ROI.
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