The 24

The 24, told by Steve Kaster, a member of CrossFit Green Bay
The heart-breaking truth about Hero WODs is that we could do several a
day, 365 days a year and still not honor all those that should be recognized.
Crossfit tends to honor heroes of more recent times. Today we honor some
from years ago.
Forty-five years ago this past Friday on October 21, 1977, a U.S. Marine
Corps CH-53 helicopter crashed during a training exercise on the Philippine
island of Mindoro, killing 24 of the 37 onboard. The helicopter was carrying a
crew of four as well as 31 Marines and two Navy Corpsmen and all of their
combat-load gear. Following instructions passed to them, the ground crew
hooked a water bull (also known as a water buffalo – a mobile water tank
capable of holding about 400 gallons) onto the helicopter which was already
heavily loaded. From what I was told by friends on the ground in the LZ
area, as the helicopter attempted to lift-off, there was some type of problem
with the tail rotor which caused the helicopter to go into a violent spin. From
what I later read, the possibility of problems with the tail rotor in a heavily
loaded chopper of this type was a known design flaw. The pilot lost control of
the chopper causing the tail rotor to strike the side of a mountain, which
resulted in the helicopter rolling down the mountain while bursting into
flames. Some of the 13 survivors were thrown out of the chopper while it
was in a spin, others were thrown out while it rolled down the mountain.

There were what seemed like valid but unconfirmed reports that one of the
crewmen was responsible for throwing some Marines from the helicopter as
it lost control. Some of the survivors were found in the tops of trees. We
were told that one of the initial survivors was killed when the tree he was in
fell on top of him due to heavy rotor wash by the rescue helicopter trying to
get him out of the tree.

The helicopter involved in the crash was part of what was, at the time, the
largest amphibious exercise since WWII, Operation Fortress Lightning (a
training exercise).

I was an Infantry Marine doing sea-duty aboard the helicopter carrier, USS
New Orleans at the time of the crash. We were told that the helicopter that
crashed was assigned to the New Orleans. Being a large ship, the New
Orleans was one of only a few in this operation with a larger hospital unit
aboard. As such, some of the wounded men were brought aboard the New
Orleans for initial treatment while awaiting evacuation to Navy and Air Force
hospitals on the island of Luzon. Marines along with Sailors on board the
ship helped carry the wounded to the hospital area on ship. The 2 Navy
Corpsmen attached to my company, one of whom was a good friend, along
with several of their Navy medical comrades were recognized and decorated
for their extraordinary and courageous efforts to save lives and treat the
injured.

The Marines killed were with the 3 rd Battalion, 9 th Marine Regiment stationed
on Okinawa. I was later told by a member of 3/9 that many of the men
killed had less than 2 months left in their Okinawa deployment before they
would have rotated back to the states.

I’ve pieced together information and names from a variety of sources that
tell the story of what happened that horrible day. However, due to the plane
crash that killed members of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band the day before, this
story was largely unreported in the media. While I’ve tried to be accurate in
the description of what happened that day, some of the published reports
and online articles disagree on the number killed and also disagree on some
other details. I’ve read reports of between 13 and 35 killed. There were
survivors, so I don’t think it was 35 – but it was more than 13. One source
from the National Museum of the Marines reports the number as 31. In the
end, we would all agree that 1 death is one too many. Also, while much of
this narrative was taken from those articles and online sources, I remember
our company being told by our Commanding Officer the next day that 24
men were killed, making it one of the worst accidents in Marine Corps
history. As well, my Navy Corpsman friend told me the day after that there
were 24 killed. Unfortunately, we were never told if any of the survivors died
later which may have raised the death toll to the 31 reported by the National
Museum of the Marines. Most of the articles I’ve read report the number as
24. One of the men killed was a friend I met in boot camp who was from the
Two Rivers / Manitowoc area, PFC Bauer.

Rest in Peace, Brothers. You are not forgotten. Semper Fi.

 Capt. J. L. Crapse
 Capt. G. M. Gebhardt
 Sgt. D. G. Smith
 Sgt. C. W. Anderson
 Sgt. W. E. Casey
 Cpl. O. Hallam
 Cpl. R. N. Bennett
 Cpl. L. H. Ernsberger Jr.
 LCpl. F. R. Aguirre
 LCpl. A. R. Baker
 LCpl. A. R. Dicag
 LCpl. A. Suda Jr.
 LCpl. S. R. Bowman
 LCpl. M. L. Fitzpatrick
 LCpl. H. J. Layne
 LCpl. M. L. Quiane
 LCpl. J. L. West
 PFC J. P. Bauer
 PFC K. M. Brinkley
 PFC B. I. Jones
 PFC M. A. Lafferre
 PFC K. K. Schwartz
 PFC D. A. Wright
 HA S. R. Dolan (USN)