Remains of missing Marines found

Team recovers remains of US Marine aviators killed in midair collision off Japan

STARS AND STRIPES
By SETH ROBSON
Published: June 10, 2019

TOKYO — Salvagers have recovered human remains from an area of the Philippine Sea where two U.S. military aircraft crashed on Dec. 6, the III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement Monday.

A KC-130J Super Hercules with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152 takes off from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, July 15, 2014. LUIS RODRIGUEZ/U.S. MARINE CORPS

Five crew members of a KC-130J tanker and the pilot of an F/A-18 Hornet were killed in a midair collision during nighttime training off Japan’s southern coast. The Hornet’s weapons officer was the sole survivor.

A search by U.S. and Japanese forces for the lost aviators that spanned 35,000 square nautical miles was called off Dec. 11.
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White House wanted to keep McCain away from POTUS...the ship that is

update Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on the Sunday TV talk shows that a junior staffer made the request to the military to hide the destroyer McCain from President Donald Trump's view "That's not an unreasonable thing to ask" that the president be spared having to see a warship with late Sen. John McCain's name on it, given the enmity between them, both personally and politically, Mulvaney said on NBC-TV's "Meet The Press" program. read more here

BTW OMG!

Navy acknowledges request was made to hide USS John S. McCain during Trump visit

NBC News
By Max Burman and Courtney Kube
June 1, 2019

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that it had reviewed an email to Navy and Air Force officials dated May 15 that included the direction "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight" for Trump's Japan visit. CNBC has also obtained the email. NBC News has not reviewed the email.

The USS John S. McCain, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, operates off the Korean Peninsula during exercises on March 2013.Declan Barnes / U.S. Navy via AFP - Getty Images file

The U.S. Navy has acknowledged that a request was made to hide the USS John S. McCain during President Donald Trump's recent state visit to Japan.

"A request was made to the U.S. Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain, however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President's visit," Rear Admiral Charlie Brown, chief of information, said in a statement to NBC News.

"There were also no intentional efforts to explicitly exclude Sailors assigned to USS John S. McCain," the statement said.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Friday he’d asked his chief of staff to “look into” the reported request from the White House to move the ship "out of sight" during Trump's visit.

“Our business is to run military operations and not become politicized,” Shanahan told reporters during a news conference in Singapore. “I would not have moved the ship," he added.
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U.S. sailor found in Sasebo park after apparent suicide

update from Military.com

The Navy has released the identity of a 21-year-old gunner's mate found dead late Thursday in a public park outside Sasebo Naval Base, Japan. Petty Officer 3rd Class Chase Edwards, of Euless, Texas, was assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, which is homeported at Sasebo.

Body likely belonging to U.S. sailor found in Sasebo park after apparent suicide

BY TOKYO REPORTER STAFF
MAY 10, 2019

NAGASAKI (TR) – Nagasaki Prefectural Police are investigating what is being treated as a suicide after the discovery of the body of a man believed to be a member of the U.S. Navy at a park in Sasebo City early Friday, reports the Nishi Nippon Shimbun (May 10).

At around 11:35 p.m. on Thursday, personnel at the Commander Fleet Activities Sasebo base contacted the Sasebo Police Station to report the disappearance of a male member of the U.S. military “who talked about suicide.”

At around midnight, the body of a foreign man, clothed in a gray jacket, was discovered in a park adjoining the base with a gunshot wound to the head. A pistol was found in one of his hands, police said.

Police are now working to confirm the identity of the body.
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NCIS investigating murder-suicide in Okinawa involving sailor

Japan: Sailor kills woman, self in Okinawa

The Associated Press
By: Yuri Kageyama
April 13, 2019

TOKYO — A U.S. serviceman fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself in Okinawa on Saturday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said, amid growing resentment about the presence of American troops in the southwestern Japanese region.

The apartment where a U.S. servicemen and a Japanese woman were found dead, in Chatan town on Okinawa on Saturday. The sailor fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself , according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, amid growing resentment about the presence of American troops in Japan's southwestern region. (Kyodo News via AP)

U.S. Forces Japan said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was working with local police to look into the deaths of a U.S. Navy sailor assigned to a Marine unit and an Okinawa resident.

“This is an absolute tragedy and we are fully committed to supporting the investigation,” it said in a statement, adding that more information would be released later.
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Air Force Chaplain gives assurance life can get better

On suicides, Air Force’s top chaplain preaches hope over darkness to Yokota airmen

STARS AND STRIPES
By SETH ROBSON
Published: February 21, 2019

Schaick, 60, who commands 2,000 chaplains and religious affairs airmen, told the Yokota personnel that life can go to a dark place, but it always gets better.

Air Force chief of chaplains Maj. Gen. Steven Schaick told airmen gathered for a prayer breakfast Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, at the Enlisted Club at Yokota Air Base, Japan, that everyone experiences "moments of darkness" but that things get better in the end. SETH ROBSON/STARS AND STRIPES

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Even a two-star general has “moments of darkness,” the Air Force chief of chaplains told servicemembers Thursday at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Steven Schaick told several airmen gathered for a National Prayer Breakfast event at the Yokota Enlisted Club that, like everyone, he experiences disorientation, for example, on days when there are complaints at work, his kids don’t answer the phone or he has issues with his wife.

“There is a spirit in this world who wants us to believe that is where it ends,” he said. “There are airmen all over Yokota who believe this even now … We had 100 airmen last year who decided that death by suicide was their only way out.”

Yokota’s 374th Maintenance Group had a string of airman suicides in 2016 and Pacific Air Forces dispatched a “suicide prevention support team” to investigate there and at Misawa and Kadena air bases.
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Marine Afghanistan Veteran Went from Combat, to Car, to College?

This veteran went from living in his car to graduating college
USA Today
Brooke Metz
March 2, 2017

Zack Cleghorn with his diploma from East Carolina University. (Photo: provided by Zack Cleghorn)

Four years ago, Zack Cleghorn was living in his car.

After returning home from a seven-year tour as a Marine in Japan, Afghanistan and the U.S., Cleghorn worked as a car salesman for several months to make ends meet. But he struggled with PTSD and depression.

“There was a time I didn’t want to wake up in the morning,” says Cleghorn, 28.

College, which no one in his family had attended, seemed like the best way to move forward. So he moved in with a friend and enrolled at Pitt Community College in Winterville, North Carolina, on a scholarship. Thanks to his financial aid package, he was able to pay for an apartment while he took classes.

Two years later, Cleghorn transferred to East Carolina University to finish his degree in industrial engineering technology. He graduated in December and, last week, received his diploma.
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Army Reserve Medic Missing in Japan

Colorado man missing in Japan
NBC 9 News Colorado
February 22, 2017

KUSA - Rescuers and volunteers are searching for a Colorado man who disappeared while skiing Happo-one in Nagano, Japan.

Cpt. Mathew Healy, Army Reserves, is an OEF Veteran with combat medic experience according to family members. He along with his wife and 2 children have been living in Japan for 2 years as a part of his wife’s Air Force assignment in Okinawa.
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UPDATE

Search continues for lost US skier in Japan

Airman jumps out of a C-130 Hercules at 10,000 feet

Jump Training

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Jonas jumps out of a C-130 Hercules at 10,000 feet while flying over Yokota Air Base, Japan, March 2, 2016. Jonas, a noncommissioned officer in charge of survival, evasion, resistance and escape operations, is assigned to the 374th Operations Support Squadron. Air Force photo by Senior Airman David Owsianka



Can't help it! When I saw this picture in work today all I could think of is that song "I'm a little teapot,,"

USS Butler WWII Veteran Finally Receives Purple Heart

WWII veteran awarded Purple Heart 70 years after battle 
CNN 
By Amanda Jackson 
February 2, 2016 

(CNN)Ninety-year-old Frederick Stone, a former Navy petty officer from New York, received the Purple Heart on Sunday, more than 70 years after the World War II battle where he gave his heroic service.

A Purple Heart medal is awarded to those service members who were killed or injured while serving.

In 1945, Stone was injured in battle while aboard the destroyer USS Butler off the island of Okinawa, Japan.

Although he was injured, Stone helped his fellow serviceman who was seriously wounded get to safety. After helping, Stone returned to his post.

Stone still has shrapnel embedded in his back, according to CNN affiliate News 12 Long Island.
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Remembering Pearl Harbor

Department of Defense 74th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Attack

• Video Timeline: Remembering Pearl Harbor
• Events: Anniversary of Attack
• Fact Sheet: Pearl Harbor
• Pearl Harbor: Then and Now
• Pearl Harbor Raid: Attacks on Airfields, Aerial Combat
• Recalling Pearl Harbor: Oral Histories, Survivor Accounts
• World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument
• USS Pearl Harbor
• USS Arizona Memorial
• USS Utah Memorial
• USS Oklahoma Memorial
• USS Missouri Memorial

Pearl Harbor Day ceremonies to mark attack
CNN
By Katia Hetter, Marnie Hunter and Brad Lendon
December 7, 2015

As of two years ago some 2,000 to 2,500 Pearl Harbor survivors were believed to be still alive, according to Eileen Martinez, chief of interpretation for the USS Arizona Memorial.

(CNN)On the day the nation pays tribute to those who perished in the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona memorial will honor the man who was the ship's oldest surviving officer.

As part of the 74th anniversary of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on Monday, the ashes of retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Langdell, who died at age 100 in February, will be interred in the ship with full military burial honors.

The USS Arizona battleship was bombed and sunk during Japan's surprise morning attack on Pearl Harbor that pulled the United States into World War II.

The remains of many of the 1,177 U.S. military personnel who died aboard the Arizona are still inside the submerged wreck. It was the greatest loss of life ever in an attack on a U.S. warship, the National Park Service says.

The memorial was dedicated in 1962.
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102-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor returns to Hawaii
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow)
By Victoria Cuba
Posted: Dec 06, 2015

Even at 102 years old, Jim Downing still remembers the attack on Pearl Harbor as if it were just last week.

Now back in Hawaii for the 74th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, he feels all the memories come rushing back.

“When I think about what happened here on December 7... That's a sad memory,” said Downing, the second oldest Pearl Harbor survivor.

On that very day, fire hose in hand, he remembered seeing the Japanese fighter planes flying straight overhead, his fellow comrades falling around him.

The overwhelming feelings of surprise, fear and pride at the sight of them can still be felt until this very day.

“I kind of ran the whole gamut of emotions,” he said.
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Oldest U.S. vet, 110, helps mark Pearl Harbor Day
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
December 7, 2015

America's oldest living veteran is helping the nation mark Monday's 74th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the National World War II Memorial in the nation's capital.

Former Army private Frank Levingston, who turned 110 last month, served in Italy during World War II. He enlisted in 1942, shortly after the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack in Hawaii that killed 2,400 servicemembers and brought the United the States into the war.
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Veteran's Funeral Attended by Over 1,000 New Family Members

More than 1,000 Attend Funeral for Veteran with No Known Family
Military.com
November 19, 2015

More than 1,000 people gathered in a church outside Indianapolis Tuesday to honor the life of a veteran with no known living family members, the Greenfield Daily Reporter reported.

Former Marine Cpl. Billy Aldridge, 80, had been living for over 10 years at an Indianapolis nursing home before he died last month. Aldridge enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1956, served as a supply man for almost four years, and spent two of those years in Okinawa, Japan.

When Aldridge passed away, the nursing home turned his body over to Legacy Cremation and Funeral Service, whose staff decided to plan a proper -- and public -- sendoff for a brave veteran.

Aldridge was memorialized with a standing-room only service at the Lawrence United Methodist Church in Lawrence, Ind. Hundreds lined the walls of the facility and its vestibule after all the seats were filled.

Paul Adams, a member of the Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard, a group of former servicemen who attend over 50 veteran funerals annually, told the paper that despite the fact they do not personally know each veteran they memorialize, each funeral is very emotional for all of them.
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WWII Veteran Still On Mission

At 91, pilot, hero, still on mission
The Journal Gazette
Brian Francisco
Washington editor
October 8, 2015

“For many, many years I spoke every night in my dreams to the 16 guys who I flew with who were killed in World War II, half of my squadron,” he said. Yellen flew 19 combat missions over Japan.

Jerry Yellin stepped off a shuttle bus just before dawn Wednesday and headed toward an airliner when he was intercepted by a teenage girl.

“Thank you for your service,” she told Yellin, giving him a red, white and blue ornament with ribbons displaying the words “brave hero.”

Most if not all of the 86 military veterans boarding Tuesday’s Honor Flight received the trinkets from members of a Whitley County 4-H club. Yellin’s presenter likely did not know it at the time, but her gratitude was directed at the day’s celebrity.

Yellin, 91, was a P-51 fighter pilot who flew the final combat mission of World War II. His wingman on Aug. 14, 1945, Phil Schlamberg, disappeared in the attack over mainland Japan and is considered the last American killed in the war.

Wednesday’s trip was Yellin’s first Honor Flight to visit memorials in Washington, D.C., although the resident of Fairfield, Iowa, had seen them before. The group departed from the Air National Guard’s 122nd Fighter Wing and Fort Wayne International Airport, which began its life as a military air base during WWII.

While in Washington for the day, Yellin was scheduled to place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“That, to me, is an honor beyond anything that I’ve ever been involved with,” he said in an interview at the 122nd Fighter Wing along Ferguson Road.

Yellin is the author of four books; a spokesman for Spirit of ’45, an organization that celebrates the WWII generation; and an advocate for aiding veterans who suffer post traumatic stress disorder. He said he battled PTSD for 30 years after serving in the Pacific Theater.

“I thought about suicide, and I stopped flying fighter planes because I knew if I continued to fly, I was going to die, by chance or by choice,” said Yellen, who had been a captain in the Army Air Corps. “I hardly could ever go up in a building, a 10-story, 12-story building, without standing by a window and thinking about jumping.
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WWII Veteran Talks About War Ending But Not Struggle

On V-J day, recalling a struggle that didn’t end
APP.com
Jerry Carino
August 13, 2015

The Greatest Generation is known for poise in the face of crisis, but for decades World War II vets said little about their combat experiences. Now many of those who remain are speaking out. Sona’s voice is not alone.

Charles Sona, a 90-year-old Howell resident who served in the Pacific

during World War II, holds his hat with his SeaBees insignia on it.

(Photo: Peter Ackerman/Staff Photographer)

HOWELL – This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the allied forces’ victory over Japan, but Charles Sona won’t be celebrating.

The World War II veteran and longtime Howell resident will reflect on what was lost, not what was won.

“The waste of all the men that died over there,” he said. “If I had my way, wars would be fought by the politicians that declare it. Not by sending our young guys to get slaughtered.”

Now 90, Sona almost was one of those guys. He fought in the Pacific theater in 1943 and 1944 before getting “blown up” during the Battle of Hollandia in New Guinea. He was on patrol as a “Seabee,” a member of the Navy’s construction battalions.

“I woke up in the mud; a guy was looking down at me and I couldn’t hear him,” Sona recalled. “Apparently I was blown up by something . . . I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t hear for a while. I still have terrible ringing in my ears.”

He rarely has told his story over the years -- “I still find it very hard to talk about,” he said, adding that he witnessed atrocities committed by the Japanese -- but he wants people to understand how unglamorous war is.

“If you smelled cordite (gunpowder) all the time, and vomit and the stink of the bodies rotting . . . I think it would change a lot of peoples’ attitude about war,” he said. “They think it’s so nice. It isn’t. It’s ugly, filthy.”
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Black Hawk "Hard Landing" on USNS Red Cloud in Japan

U.S. Military Helicopter Crashes Off Japan's Okinawa; 7 Injured
NBC News
by ARATA YAMAMOTO and CASSANDRA VINOGRAD
AUG 12 2015, 5:47 AM ET

TOKYO — A U.S. military helicopter crash landed off the Japanese island of Okinawa on Wednesday, leaving seven people injured.

The UH-60 Black Hawk performed a "hard-deck landing" on the USNS Red Cloud, the U.S. Pacific Command said. Aerial footage broadcast by NHK showed the chopper with part of its tail broken off.

Of the 17 people on board, seven were injured and transported to a U.S. naval hospital on Okinawa, according to the U.S. Pacific Command. It previously said six people were injured but then revised the figure.
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WWII POWs Get Apology from Japanese Company

70 Years after WWII, Japanese Company Apologizes to US POWs
Associated Press
by Andrew Dalton
Jul 21, 2015

"This is a glorious day," said Murphy, who stood tall and slender in a gray suit at the ceremony and looked much younger than his 94 years. "For 70 years, we wanted this."

James Murphy, World War II veteran and prisoner of war, is photographed

at his home in Santa Maria, Calif., Thursday, July 16, 2015.

(AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant)

LOS ANGELES — Saying they felt a "deep sense of ethical responsibility for a past tragedy," executives from a major Japanese corporation gave an unprecedented apology Sunday to a 94-year-old U.S. prisoner of war for using American POWs for forced labor during World War II.

At the solemn ceremony hosted by the Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, James Murphy of Santa Maria, California, accepted the apology he had sought for 70 years on behalf of U.S. POWs from executives of Mitsubishi Materials Corp.

Hikaru Kimura, senior executive officer for Mitsubishi Materials Corp., said through a translator that the company offered a "most remorseful apology" to the about 900 POWs who suffered "harsh, severe hardships" while forced to work in Mitsubishi mines and industrial plants.

Murphy, who toiled in Mitsubishi copper mines and is one of the few left alive to accept such an apology, called it sincere, humble and revealing.
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Veteran Told Charity Anything But the Truth

Veteran accused of lying, taking money, goods
ABC 13 News
Brian Farrell, 13News Now
July 16, 2015

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- A former Marine who claimed to be a wounded warrior is accused of taking money under false pretenses in at least two Hampton Roads cities.

13News Now first met Brent Henry in March when he planned to walk 216 miles from Virginia Beach to Arlington National Cemetery in order to raise awareness about veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the need to provide suicide prevention resources.

Henry was going to make the trip to Arlington with his service dog, Geneva.

Both worked with the non-profit group Wags for Warriors of Virginia, a no-kill animal shelter and training facility that helps veterans with disabilities and PTSD through the use of service dogs.

"He claimed that he was something he wasn't, said that he had been places that he hadn't been," said Adam Mayo, founder of Wags for Warriors of Virginia.

"He named this dog that he had after supposed service dog that he had -- a working dog -- in the military that apparently died working in the military," explained Mayo. "Come to find out the only place he was ever deployed was Japan. He never saw combat. He was never in the desert. He was never in a helicopter crash like he told us he was."

Mayo told 13News Now he found out about discrepancies in Henry's story when he started looking into the Marine's background. He said Henry would not provide a copy of his service record, including discharge information.
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WWII Veterans Don't Want History Edited

Japan’s views of WWII history rankles some US veterans 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MATTHEW PENNINGTON
April 25, 2015

(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)(Credit: AP)

Lester Tenney talks about the more than three years he spent in a Japanese prisoner of war camp Monday, April 20, 2015 in Carlsbad, Calif. Tenney endured three hellish years as a Japanese prisoner during World War II, but with the passing of decades and repeated visits, he’s made peace with his former enemy. Yet as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares to address Congress next week, in the 70th anniversary year of the war’s end, something rankles the U.S. military veteran about Japan’s attitude toward its past. "They don’t want the young people to know what really happened,"says Tenney.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lester Tenney endured three hellish years as a Japanese prisoner during World War II, but with the passing of decades and repeated visits, he’s made peace with his former enemy. Yet as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares to address Congress next week, in the 70th anniversary year of the war’s end, something rankles the U.S. military veteran about Japan’s attitude toward its past.

“They don’t want the young people to know what really happened,” complains Tenney, now 94.

The Associated Press spoke to three U.S. war veterans about their surrender in the Philippines in 1942 and their exploitation as slave laborers in Japan. It’s an episode of history most notorious for the Bataan Death March, when tens of thousands of Filipino and American prisoners of war were forced 65 miles on foot to prison camps. Thousands are believed to have perished.

The AP also asked the veterans for opinions about Japan today. The U.S.-allied nation issued a formal apology to American POWs in 2009 and again in 2010, and has paid for some veterans to travel to Japan, leaving them with a more positive view of the Japanese people.

All three veterans, however, remain adamant that their wartime experiences, and those of the POWs who didn’t make it, should not be forgotten.
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Marine Sergeant Major Relieved of Duty After False Service Claims

Sergeant major relieved after claims he embellished awards
Marine Corps Times
By Hope Hodge Seck, Staff writer
March 24, 2015

Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Lovell III
(Photo: Official service photo)

The top enlisted leader of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines has been relieved after Marines raised disturbing questions about discrepancies in his official biography.

Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Lovell III was removed from his post as the infantry battalion's sergeant major on Monday due to a loss of confidence, said 1st Lt. Luke Kuper, a spokesman for III Marine Expeditionary Force.

Lovell's unit is currently attached to 4th Marines on a Unit Deployment Program rotation to Okinawa, Japan.

"Errors in Lovell's official biography were brought to the Marine Corps' attention in a blog post on March 19, 2015," Kuper said in a statement.

"The official biography has been updated to reflect Lovell's service record. The Marine Corps works to ensure the accuracy of all public information and will correct inaccuracies when present."

Lovell is being sent back to his parent command at 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Kuper said. read more here

Two Star General Retires Less of a Star

Army Knocks 2-Star Down to 1-Star Rank
Associated Press
by Robert Burns
Aug 27, 2014

WASHINGTON — A two-star Army general faulted for failing to properly investigate sexual assault and other accusations against a colonel on his staff will be retired at one-star rank, the Army announced Wednesday.

The decision by Army Secretary John M. McHugh comes more than a year after Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison was suspended from his duties as commander of U.S. Army forces in Japan.

His case has been cited as evidence of why sex-crime victims say they don't trust the military to protect them, despite efforts by senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, to make commanders accountable.

In March the Pentagon turned back an effort in Congress to strip commanders of the authority to prosecute cases, especially those related to sexual assault, and hand the job to seasoned military lawyers.

An Army inspector general's investigation report released in April said that in March 2013, when a Japanese woman accused the unidentified colonel on Harrison's staff of sexually assaulting her, Harrison waited months to report it to criminal investigators. That was a violation of Army rules.
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Massachusetts Air National Guard Pilot Missing After Crash

UPDATE FROM STARS AND STRIPES

Pilot in F-15 crash was decorated combat vet
Had served as fighter squadron commander at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa

Air Force Lt. Col. Morris Fontenot, the former commander of the 67th Fighter Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, looks on at Komatsu Air Base, Japan, on Dec. 7, 2013. Fontenot was killed after the F-15 he was piloting crashed in Virginia on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014.
AMBER E. N. JACOBS/U.S. AIR FORCE

By Chris Carroll
Published: August 29, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Massachusetts Air National Guard has identified the decorated combat veteran killed Wednesday when the F-15C fighter he was flying slammed into a remote, heavily forested part of western Virginia.

"On behalf of the family of our fallen pilot and with a sense of profound sadness, I am sad to share that Lt. Col. Morris "Moose" Fontenot Jr., was killed tragically in Wednesday's F-15 crash," said Col. James Keefe, commander of the 104th Fighter Wing, based in Westfield, Mass. "We all continue to keep the Fontenot family in our thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time."

Fontenot served full-time as the unit’s wing inspector general, overseeing the Air Force’s inspection procedures, and as an F-15 instructor pilot with more than 17 years’ experience flying the jets, wing officials said.
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Authorities comb mountains for missing pilot after Guard F-15 crash
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: August 27, 2014

WASHINGTON — Military and civilian authorities searched a thickly forested, mountainous swath of western Virginia on Wednesday in hopes of finding a missing Massachusetts Air National Guard pilot whose F-15C went down en route to a maintenance depot.

The pilot’s commander said he could not confirm a report that a witness had seen the pilot eject and a parachute open.

“It’s a traumatic event for everyone here, and we’re thinking about the family and keeping our thoughts and prayers with them,” said Col. James Keefe, commander of the 104th Fighter Wing based in Westfield, Mass. “Hopefully we’ll get a good outcome.”
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