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Memorial service honors fallen North Carolina MAFFS Airmen

  • Published
  • By Mark Washburn
  • Charlotte Observer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. --  About 1,500 people turned out in one of the Air National Guard hangars at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Wednesday morning, including Guardsmen, families of the four dead Airmen and friends.

A five-person U.S. Forest Service honor guard, with members drawn from as far away as California, marched with an honor guard unit from the 145th Airlift Wing, the unit that operated the C-130 sent West last month to help battle wildfires in an unusually dry fire season.

As the four families filed into the service, a pianist played "Wind Beneath My Wings." Each of the four names were read as a family escort representative went onstage and removed a black shroud from the men's portraits mounted on large easels.

A video showed the unit's C-130s in fire service out West dropping scarlet-dyed fire retardant on fires, the plane's tails distinguished with a Carolina Blue stripe that says "Charlotte."

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said she was speaking for 9.6 million North Carolinians in honoring the four men she called "these four great sons of North Carolina."

"These proud, proud Airmen all knew - they really did know and understand as did their families - the risk and reward. Time after time after time, they strapped themselves in that seat for their next mission to protect people they didn't know or would never know in places far from our homes," she said.

"They sat next to us in church or in the stands of our kids' games."

She said the plane they flew is named the Hercules, appropriately named after the adventuresome mythological character known for his strength.

"They lived by the National Guard motto, 'Always ready, always there.'"

Then close acquaintances of each of the airmen stood and eulogized them, one by one, in order of rank.

Lt. Col. Jim Pearson spoke of Lt. Col Paul Mikeal, 42, of Mooresville, N.C. He said Mikeal inspired him to be a better person and a better aviator.

"What can I say about Lt. Col. Paul Mikeal? He exuded excellence in everything he did as an aviator, friend and family man. I had the pleasure of seeing Paul excel in all three areas. He inspired me to be a better family man."

Maj. James Bodolosky spoke of Maj. Joe McCormick, 36, of Belmont, N.C.. "He was the most honorable man you could find. In any situation. He was in love with his newborn daughter long before he met her. His life was based on his relationship with Jesus Christ."

"As we walked through life together, Joe and I encouraged and strengthened each other. And as it says in Proverbs 27:17: `As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.' That was my relationship with Joe McCormick. He was always sharpening me and I was always sharpening him. And I will miss him dearly."

Maj. Toshio Sameshima spoke for Maj. Ryan David, 35, of Boone, N.C.

"What made him so exceptional was his character ... Ryan had a spirit that made everything around him glow brighter. I don't care how bad a day it was, how terrible a situation it was, you could always count on Ryan for a smile and a laugh."

"He reminded me of how to live life - as though there were no bad days."

1st Lt. Michael Nix spoke for Senior Master Sgt. Robbie Cannon, 50, of Charlotte. Nix is Cannon's brother-in-law.

"When it was business, it was business. When work was done, he went right home to spend time with his family. It was a blessing to see how he loved his family."

Perdue then presented N.C. flags that had flown over the Capitol in Raleigh, N.C., to each of the widows, then embraced them.

One of the unit's chaplains, Lt. Col. Sandy Yow, praised the members of the 145th Airlift Wing. "You're a special group because not just anyone can do what you do and it tests your steel."

Capt. Jeff Kidd, another chaplain, told the crowd what one of the family members of the fallen said of their airman this week. "You earned your wings to fly in the sky and now you earned you wings to soar among the heavens."

Then, one by one, the families left the hangar, with David's widow Jenny Ellerbe holding their infant child Rob. They went to a memorial section of the base beneath a retired C-130 displayed on struts at the edge of the campus.

Flags were held by silent members of the Patriot Guard, a group of civilians and veterans who ride motorcycles to honor fallen Airmen and are best known for providing human shields at funerals to keep protesting members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church away from grieving relatives. Bagpipers from the Charlotte Fire Department played "Amazing Grace" and two C-130s based at an Air Guard unit in Charleston, W.Va., roared over in a "missing man" formation, with one pealing off as it passed over the gathering.

Names of the four airmen had been inscribed in a monument to unit airmen who had passed on. Their names were read once more. "They will not be forgotten," said Air Force Brig. Gen. D. Todd Kelly, Assistant Adjutant General-Air of the North Carolina National Guard.

A 21-gun salute was executed followed by two buglers playing "Taps." Charlotte's Guard unit is one of four in the U.S. that flies firefighting missions with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, known as MAFFS. Other C-130s were parked at the base from Colorado and Wyoming, where they brought in delegations from two other MAFFS units (the one from Channel Islands, Calif., did not seem to be represented).

At the Charlotte base, the hangar where the service was held is usually used for C-130 maintenance, but it is also the site of unit celebrations for promotion ceremonies, retirements, awards, Christmas parties and the annual October "Hometown Hero" event, which recognizes those who went on overseas deployment and the sacrifices of their family members back home.

(Editor's note: This article was made available by the Charlotte Observer for reproduction. Reproduction of this article and image does not imply endorsement of the Charlotte Observer)