Members from Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division and Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst held a 20 year memorial service to honor their fallen teammates. On August 17th 2000 an Pax Air Shuttle was involved in a mid-air collision in the skies over Burlington County, New Jersey.
Transcript
Good morning. Thank you for joining us for this memorial service honoring our teammates and friends. we lost 20 years ago. Even though current conditions do not allow us to be together in person, we welcome all of you virtually for this event. We encourage family and friends to post messages, pictures, and share stories of their loved ones in the comments section of this video so that we may share in their memories. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to today’s memorial service. I am Mr. Bruce Brown, your narrator for today’s ceremony. Wherever you are, please stand for the presentation of colors, the singing of our national anthem, and the invocation. Advance the colors.
[Sergeant-at-Arms] Detail, attention! Carry colors! Forward march! March on, march. Detail, halt. Left face. Present arms.
♪ O say can you see by the dawn’s early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ At the twilight’s last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ Through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O’er the ramparts we watched ♪ ♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ And the rocket’s red glare ♪ ♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪ ♪ That our flag was still there ♪ ♪ O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪
[Sergeant-at-Arms] Shoulder arm. Carry color. Right forward about face. Left face. Forward march.
If you choose, please join me in prayer. Father, please help us to fully know your presence as we remember this day of great loss. May those who we lost rest in you for eternity and may your grace and peace continue to be poured out onto their families and loved ones who we remember this day. Their families carried on with life, even as they bore deep within them, the haunting memories of what took place. Bless them with wholeness and love, shelter them, heal their wounds, comfort their hearts and grant them peace. This day of remembrance is a time to look back and to not only grieve for the tragedy, but remember the lives of those we honor. Help us to never forget our history and the great sacrifice of those who have worked to ensure liberty’s blessings. Finally, Lord, we look upward in praise and thanksgiving as we acknowledge the grace You have shed on us, that also calls us to the responsibility to be a nation that seeks the good of all people. May all we say and do today bring honor to those who have served our country and bring glory to Your holy name, Amen.
Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst, Executive Director, Ms. Kathleen Donnelly.
Good morning, everyone. And thank you, for joining us virtually. Like many of you, I wish we could be here together in person. On Wednesday, August 9th, 2000, our colleagues and friends lost their lives in service to their country en route to the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. For some of us, it feels like just yesterday and that is why it’s so hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since this tragic loss. As many of us have made our way into work each day over these past 20 years, we have constant reminders of those we lost that fateful day. They were our teammates, friendly faces in the hallway, our travel buddies, and our friends. The memorial plaques inside our buildings and in our Lakehurst campus, remind us of their faces, their names, and how fragile life can be. This day, I find myself searching for the right words to convey the immensity of loss and sorrow impacting so many of us in the ensuing years. Today, we take a moment to reflect on what life chapters were rewritten by those of us most closely affected. We are spouses and significant others, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, granddaughters and grandsons, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues bound together forever by this profound loss. Time is relentless, but each of us deals with its passage differently. For some, it has eased the shock and pain that occurred 20 years ago. For others, the wounds are just as raw as they were on August 9th, 2000. It is my faith in the powerful and enduring human spirit that we successfully navigated these past 20 years, even though life has not gone on as planned. Each day, whether aware of it or not, we carry with us a piece of that person who was lost. It is my hope on this day, we come together in solidarity and fellowship to remember those we lost and strive every day to embody the good that each of these individuals inspired in us to live on. They are always remembered. I’d like to close with a sonnet that was shared during the memorial service in 2000. It’s called “High Flight.” It was written by John Gillespie Magee, an American pilot in World War II who was killed during a training flight accident. Portions of this poem appear on the headstones of many interred in Arlington National Cemetery, particularly aviators and astronauts. It reads, “Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of, wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long deliriously blue burning sky, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, where never lark, or even eagle, flew; and, while with silent, lifting mind, I’ve trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touch the face of God.” At this time, please welcome the Commanding Officer Naval Support Activity, Captain Bill Sherrod, to say a few words.
Good morning. Thank you, Ms. Donnelly. Men and women of Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Naval Support Activity Lakehurst, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, welcome on this important day of what is our legacy. To our most honored guests, the families of those we lost 20 years ago, let me say to you that we are part of your larger family and we stand with you today and every day honoring the tribute and sacrifice of your loved ones. Together with you we remember all that is good, all that is true, and all that is beautiful about the lives that they lived. And, if we remember them and if we honor them by living as they would have us live, and if we do our best every day to protect the promise, their promise to the world, and we keep our promise to them and to ourselves and future generations. So, let us remember. August 9th was a routine day. Charter aircraft that carried our teammates on a daily shuttle down to Patuxent River. However, at 7:52 in the morning, it ended in a manner that no one could imagine and our lives were forever changed. David Dahlen lived in Warminster, Pennsylvania. He was a stock car racing enthusiast, a doting grandfather, and a singer in a barbershop quartet. Also, a contractor with Naval Inventory Control Point in Philadelphia. He was involved in foreign military sales and logistics management and made the trip at least three or four times a year. He’d always call his loving wife, Gail, after he’d land in Maryland. And we he did not call, she knew something had happened. He was 57 years old. Angelo A.J. George, a program manager was from Toms river with a wife and four young children. He was an Eagle Scout and a model train enthusiast. He was 39. Cynthia Kovacs, a breast cancer survivor, avid runner, and mechanical engineer. But, most importantly, she was a loving mother to two young children. They were her life and her joy. Together with her husband, Wayne, they were a part of what makes Lakehurst so special for so many as we are a family. Robert G. Polo. Bob married his wife, Noreen. He was active in the church and the New Jersey Modelers Club. He was a logistics management specialist and he was 39. Michael Simodejka, father to two grown children, an avid hunter, and could often be heard splashing around in his backyard pool. He was also a Vietnam veteran, a former ranger who earned the bronze star. He was a logistics management specialist and made the trip to Maryland almost every week. He lived here in Toms river with his loving wife, Patricia. He was 52. John Vail, Jr.. Program manager and electrical engineer. He had just celebrated his birthday day before the accident and he was working towards a master’s degree. He left behind a loving wife, Michelle. He was 36. John Zukow was outgoing and always there to help others, an engineering technician, a former paratrooper. He and his wife, Kathleen, had just recently moved into a retirement community and they were the new kids on the block, but they were also known for always helping others. This was his first shuttle trip ’cause he usually took a commercial flight. He was 56. Additionally, let us not forget the memories, those who we also lost that day and the grief and sacrifice of their families. Joseph Peter Mari, Toms river and Daniel Groff of Forked River. Daniel had a wife and a son. Joseph was single, lived with his parents, but he was pursuing his passion ’cause ever since he was a little boy, all he ever wanted to do was fly. They were employees with Patuxent Airlines. They often flew the shuttle run together. And the other aircraft, Jason Wismer, 20, of Bensalem, Pennsylvania. He was a student pilot and pursuing a dream. And with them was Craig Robinson, 28, an officer of the Washington Township Police Department. He was a flight instructor in his free time. And next to his wife and his child, flying was his life. It’s what he loved. In that spirit this morning, we commit ourselves to remembering and honoring the lives that might have been. We keep faith with the innocence who perished. We took solace in their deaths. I know it was not in vain for their passing empowered us, gave us an enduring sense of purpose. We remember their presence in our lives and their absence defines who we are today. They are our North star, guiding us to do what we love, to follow our passions. Without them, we would not be who we are. Without them, we would not be Naval Aviation. Thank you.
Thank you, Captain Sharrod. Ms. Donnelly will now dedicate the 20 year memorial plaque.
Thank you, Captain Sharrod, for your kind words. When we first lost our teammates, we created memorial plaques, which are prominently displayed on our Lakehurst campus quad and in our buildings. To show that they are never forgotten, we commissioned the design of a 20 year memorial plaque. This plaque will be made of bronze with a Naval aviator badge on top. It will be laid at the foot of a memorial tree on our Lakehurst campus quad as a dedication to our teammates whose names will continue to live on as part of the fabric of Lakehurst. This representative plaque will be placed in our command building and matches the words of the bronze memorial plaque being placed on our campus. It reads as follows: “In memory of Dave Dahlen, Angeles A.J. George, Daniel Graff, Cindy Kovacs, Joseph Mari, Robert Polo, Michael Simodejka, John Vail Jr., and John Zukow. Please join me for a moment of silence to remember our friends who are gone, but never forgotten.
Please stand for the closing prayer.
As we close, I invite you to join me in prayer. Oh God, to You we lift our hearts in gratitude for the lives we remember today. Thank You too, for their families, to whom they bequeath the heritage of service and love. Be your blessing remain upon them. May they go from here in Your favor and continue in Your peace? May You bless all those who serve our country now. be our shield and our guide in all we do and help us to serve Your good will and to honor those who have gone before us. And may You bless our nation and help us to be worthy of all those who have served to defend it and even more, help us to be worthy of the gift of Your grace so abundantly shed on us in Your Holy name, we pray, Amen.
This concludes the memorial service. Thank you for joining us virtually to remember those we have lost.