Fog delays recovery in military helicopter crash

Published 10:16 am Friday, March 13, 2015

NAVARRE, Fla. — Grieving families and comrades of 11 soldiers and Marines whose Black Hawk helicopter slammed into the water during a training exercise can only wait until the dense fog clears and rough seas calm enough for their bodies to be recovered from the wreckage, which settled in just 25 feet of water.

The Army said it has recovered the bodies of two of the four soldiers from the Louisiana Army National Guard helicopter. The search continued for the remains of others on the helicopter.

The helicopter went down in thick fog Tuesday night during a routine training mission at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle. The cause of the crash — described as “high impact” by Eglin Fire Chief Mark Giuliano — is being probed by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center out of Fort Rucker, Alabama.

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Military officials said they need better weather before they can pull the UH-60’s shattered core from the bottom of Santa Rosa Sound.

Jenna Kemp’s husband, Kerry Kemp, was among the Marines killed. He was a “proud Marine, a loving husband and most wonderful father,” with a child about to turn 1, said her sister, Lora Waraksa of Port Washington, Wisconsin.

Another victim was Marcus Bawol, 27, from Warren, Michigan, north of Detroit. His sister, Brandy Peek, said military officials told them his remains had been identified. Bawol “loved everything about the military,” Peek said.

The tragedy struck hard in the beach towns near the Eglin Air Force Base and Pensacola Naval Air Station, where families often come to relax between difficult deployments.

“My heart is really hurt right now knowing these people were here just on training — knowing they went and left their family members and did not give that goodbye, you know, because they weren’t going off to war,” a tearful Dolly Edwards, herself the wife of a Marine, said at a community vigil Wednesday night.