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By PAMELA GOULD
Today, for the first time, the families of eight Marines killed in 2000 during test flights of the Osprey aircraft will be together to memorialize the men.
For North Stafford resident Carol Sweaney, widow of test pilot Lt. Col. Keith Sweaney, it will be both a time of celebration and a somber and symbolic coming full circle.
When she buried her husband in December 2000, there could be no flyover by the Osprey, the aircraft he loved and was committed to seeing succeed.
His had been the second Osprey to crash within eight months and had left the tilt-rotor aircraft grounded and its future in limbo.
But today, that final piece of his funeral is scheduled to take place when the families dedicate a permanent memorial to the men.
The families of the eight Marines raised $85,000 for the 10-foot-tall, black granite obelisk that will stand within Semper Fidelis Memorial Park on the grounds of the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
The location, on land just outside the main gate of Quantico Marine Corps Base, is fitting given that
Schafer and the families are thankful that the memorial will be in a place of such high visibility. Since it opened in November 2006, more than 800,000 people have visited the Marine Corps museum.
"The fact that it's at the museum pleases all of us--that it's not going to be at some side field somewhere but that it's part of the Marine Corps heritage in Memorial Park," Schafer said.
ACHIEVING A GOAL
Plans for a memorial started in October 2002 during a reunion that included members of six of the eight families.
Since then, it has been a grass-roots effort to raise the funds and get approval for the memorial.
"Everybody has contributed from big to small ways," Sweaney said.
But she and Schafer said that Blauvelt, N.Y., resident Anne Murphy was the driving force in the effort.
"Without Anne Murphy, this could not have happened," Sweaney said. "She spearheaded it all."
Murphy is the mother of Lt. Col. Michael L. Murphy, who was killed with Keith Sweaney during a test flight in Jacksonville, N.C., on Dec. 11, 2000.
"I just felt the men deserved a monument and we kept persevering," Murphy said in a telephone interview this week.
"I did it out of love for my son and his friends."
The Osprey, officially known as the MV-22, just last month completed its first official deployment. It spent more than 20 years in development and faced the prospect of being abandoned after a series of fatal crashes.
Carol Sweaney said she's grateful the Marines stuck with the MV-22.
"I just really hoped and prayed everything was going to be OK and that they solved all the bugs and no more lives were going to be lost," she said.
"You just want everything to be right."
She also said she feels her husband would have been pleased to see the Osprey succeed in its seven-month deployment to Iraq.
"I would think he would be very proud of what they've done with it."
Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com
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In 2000, eight Marine pilots and crew members were killed in two test flights of the MV-22, or Osprey, an aircraft with the unique ability to lift off like a helicopter and fly like a plane.
In April, the MV-22 completed its first official deployment, a seven-month mission in Iraq. The eight Marines will be memorialized today with a monument bearing their names at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle. APRIL 8, 2000 CRASHLt. Col. John A. Brow Maj. Brooks S. Gruber Staff Sgt. William B. Nelson Cpl. Kelly S. Keith DEC. 11, 2000 CRASHLt. Col. Keith M. Sweaney Lt. Col. Michael L. Murphy Staff Sgt. Avely W. Runnels Sgt. Jason A. Buyck |
