Marines React To Tragic Helicopter Crash

A helicopter crash in a remote area of the Yuma, Ariz. training range complex killed seven U.S. Marines. Local Marines react to the tragic loss.

“No one wants to hear that someone in their form of organization suffered a loss. It makes you think. I have a brother who is also a Marine as well, and it makes you think could that be him next?” Marine Cpl. Tiler Hallquist said.

“Stunned. I have a colleague who is with the air group and he’s ministering right now to loved ones whose loved ones have departed this earth,” Marine Chaplain Stephen Zachary said.

Six of the Marines were from Camp Pendleton and one from Yuma.

The crash, involving a Cobra and a Huey helicopter, happened on the California side of the Chocolate Mountains close to the Arizona border. The Marines were training there because it is like Afghanistan.

“We would expect that at a wartime, but it’s equally as painful when it happens at a training situation,” Zachary said.

People usually think combat is the most dangerous part of a Marine’s life, but they say training is just as life threatening.

“They do even more so to ready themselves to succeed at the missions at hand in the future, so they push it, they certainly push it,” Zachary added.

“It happens more often than you believe but it is a shame anytime it does happen you know. Every time you lose somebody it’s kind of hard on everybody,” Marine Sgt. Craig Clark said.

“Man, I don’t know what happened, I don’t, but I just know we lost seven of our own,” Zachary said.

We won’t know the names of the Marines killed until their families are notified.