NAVARRE, Fla. (AP) – Grieving families and comrades of 11 soldiers and Marines whose Black Hawk helicopter slammed into the water during a training exercise can only wait until the dense fog clears and rough seas calm enough for their bodies to be recovered from the wreckage, which settled in just 25 feet of water.
The Army said it has recovered the bodies of two of the four soldiers from the Louisiana Army National Guard helicopter. The remains of two other soldiers and of seven Marines from North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune were unaccounted for late Thursday.
The helicopter went down in thick fog Tuesday night during a routine training mission at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle. The cause of the crash – described as “high impact” by Eglin Fire Chief Mark Giuliano – is being probed by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center out of Fort Rucker, Alabama.
Military officials said they need better weather before they can pull the UH-60’s shattered core from the bottom of Santa Rosa Sound.
Jenna Kemp’s husband, Kerry Kemp, was among the Marines killed. He was a “proud Marine, a loving husband and most wonderful father,” with a child about to turn 1, said her sister, Lora Waraksa of Port Washington, Wisconsin.