Photo By Master Sgt. Thomas Duval | (Left to right) Task Force Sinai's senior enlisted adviser, Command Sgt. Maj. Alexis...... read more read more
EL GORAH, Egypt— “There is no more effective way of creating bitter enemies for the Army than by failing to do everything we can possibly do at a time of bereavement. Nor is there a more effective way of making friends for the Army than by showing we are personally interested in every fatality which occurs.”
These words, spoken by former Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, resonated in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, today, as members of the Multinational Force and Observers gathered on North Camp’s Memorial Square, here, to pay tribute to the 248 Soldiers who were killed when their plane crashed, shortly after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada.
This year’s Gander Memorial Ceremony marks the 29th anniversary of the ill-fated day when a charter plane carrying 248 Soldiers serving with the 3rd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division ‘Air Assault’ crashed on Dec. 12, 1985.
“Perhaps no other event in its peacetime history has so wrenched the soul and torn at the heart of the U.S. Army as the Gander tragedy, which ranked as the worst military air disaster in the nation’s history,” said. 2nd Lt. Jonathan Bobb. “This tragic loss of 248 American Warriors and its eight crew members reminds us all that no mission is truly accomplished until the last Soldier has successfully reintegrated back at home station. “
During the somber ceremony, Col. Clark Lindner, Task Force Sinai commander and Chief of Staff for the MFO, alongside his senior enlisted adviser, Command Sgt. Maj. Alexis Shelton, laid a wreath at the base of a marble memorial bearing the names of all who perished in the crash.
After placing the wreath at the base of the memorial, Lindner addressed the audience which had gathered.
“While in the years since, the loss of life has become all too commonplace, with more than 6,843 Soldiers giving their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is important to remember that every life is precious, a gift,” said Lindner to a parade field full of service members from 14 different nations. “We cannot know why their lives were cut short, but we can honor their memory by the way in which we live our own lives.”
Before stepping down from the podium, Lindner challenged his Soldiers to “depart with a renewed sense of purpose, to rise up when the odds seem insurmountable, to achieve that which is difficult and to persevere through uncertainty, ever doing so for those who cannot. “
His emotional speech was followed by a synchronized three-round volley by the 1st Support Battalion and the playing of Taps by a member of the 2nd Fiji Infantry Regiment’s band.
Although the ceremony marked the closing of the official remembrance for the MFO, Soldiers and family are expected to gather as they have annually for 29 years in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to pay tribute and honor their fallen comrades.
| Date Taken: | 12.12.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 12.12.2014 08:53 |
| Story ID: | 150156 |
| Location: | EL GORAH , EG |
| Web Views: | 444 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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