Thursday, August 16, 2007

LCpl Bryan Bertrand and Crew ~ Farewell and Walk with God

Lance Corporal Bryan Pahl Bertrand
8/12/78 - 1/9/2002
Died with his crew members in a crash of KC-130/R
Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352
Pakistan

Lance Corporal Bryan Pahl Bertrand, 23, of Coos Bay, Oregon was killed with his crew when the KC-130/R refueling plane crashed into a mountainside in Pakistan. LCpl Bertrand was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar, California.

LCpl Bertrand attended Marshfied High School in Coos Bay, where he played football and basketball, earning all-state honors as an outside linebacker, and graduated in 1997. He dabbled in some college classes, and then enlisted in the Marines on October 5, 1998.

Bertrand could have been home when the crash occured, but he volunteered for a second tour in Pakistan. He wrote to his family that he "didn't want to sit on the bench." He loved what he was doing, his father said.

In one of his last letters home, he told his family that he had saved enough money for an electric guitar. It was to be waiting for him when he got home. As a child, he wanted to be a rock star.

LCpl Bertrand is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The rest of the crew is also buried there.

KC-130/R Marine Aerial Refueler Transport

Memorial to the Crew




Miramar Memorial Service


Crew Headstone at Arlington Cemetery

Captain Matthew W. Bancroft, 29, Redding, California
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/mwbancroft.htm

Captain Daniel G. McCollum, 29, Irmo, South Carolina
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/dgmccollum.htm

Gunnery Sergeant. Stephen L. Bryson, 36, Montgomery, Alabama
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/slbryson.htm

Staff Sergeant Scott N. Germosen, 37, New York
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/sgermosen.htm

Sergeant Jeannette L. Winters, 25, Gary, Indiana
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jlwinters.htm
Sgt Winters was the first woman killed in the War on Terror

Sergeant Nathan P. Hays, 21, of Wilbur, Washington

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