Lives lost outside war

Watching tributes this past Memorial Day of those fallen in battle caused me to reflect on an incident on Dec. 23, 1957, when on a night-training exercise, a WV-2 Radar Super Constellation, attached to Navy squadron VW 14, plummeted into the sea off the coast of Hawaii.

This was an Airborne Warning and Control aircraft and carried a crew of 23 consisting of flight crews and radar and electronic specialists. These type squadrons flew from Midway Island to the tip of the Aleutians every four hours, 365 days a year, for 14- to 16-hour flights. These flights were an extension of the Distant Early Warning line which stretched across northern Canada and was designed to identify and intercept the potential threat of Russian aircraft over the North Pole. I was attached to squadron VW 12 as an Airborne Combat Information Center officer, and a sister squadron to VW 14.

That fateful night, 19 crew members perished in the Pacific Ocean. The four that were rescued spent nine hours in the water.

It is right and just that we pay homage to the brave souls lost due to hostilities, but I sometimes think we tend to ultimately overlook incidents such as this; lives lost in training or non-hostile yet deadly military activities. I’m not aware of any ongoing recognition of such lives lost outside battle, but theirs are just as precious to their families and they are just as dead in the service of their country as those who fell in combat. Perhaps it is time recognition of such sacrifice be more formalized.

JAMES H. BARRÉ

Little Rock