My husband is now a Major in the USMC, stationed here at Camp Lejuene, NC. A few years ago, we were on our way back from a day of Christmas shopping
in Wilmington, NC. My husband was driving and I was in the back with our
new baby. We took the short cut through base, coming through the
gate at Sneads Ferry. About a mile past the gate, as I was gazing out over
the rippling waves of the New River, I saw an explosion in the sky,
silouetting 2 helicopters, both at sharp angles, obviously in a horrible
crash collison. For a few moments I couldnt speak, staring at my husband
in the front seat, waiting for his reaction because I thought he must have
seen it too. I finally got a grip on myself and shouted to stop the car.
My husband asked me why and I told him what I had seen. He said it was
probably just a training exercise, and that they were often quite realistic.
I said no, not this one, I saw the two helicopters smashed into each other
and exploding! I even could see what kind of helicopters, one was a CH 46
('Frog'> and the other was a Cobra. I told him the positions of the helicopters
and their altitude. It was a clear crisp starry night. I begged him to turn the car around, to humor me and return
to the area where I 'saw' the crash. So he did and we found nothing. I still
wasnt convinced; it was dark, and the River could have swallowed up the wreckage easily.
We had a car phone and I made a call to the MPs (military police). I told them what I saw
and they said nothing had been reported. So we drove home, me kinda angry AND worried,
my husband consoling me, he was sure that I had been fooled by a training exercise.
Well about a week later, the crash happened EXACTLY where I had 'seen' it happen! A CH46
and a Cobra, the exact two helicopters I had 'seen'. Since my husband was at the time
stationed at New River Air Station, he was the one they called in the middle of the night
to come into work and do the casualty reports...all 14 of them.
A few months later, there was a contest announced to design a memorial for the aircrew men
lost in that crash, and all the other crashes in training. I entered that contest and won it.
The committee that runs the Memorial Foundation are the widows of the aircrewmen. I was called
by one of these widows to tell me that I had one. She asked me how did I get my inspiration
to design such a gutwrenching, powerful memorial. She wanted to know if I had lost someone in such
an accident. I wasnt prepared to tell her the truth so I just mumbled "no." then I had to meet her
in person. She asked me several times about what inspired me and I almost fell apart.
I COULD NOT tell her!
I felt and still feel so guilty, yet no one would have believed me
if I had made a fuss.
