Local marine killed in plane crash to be honored at ceremony
WATERFORD, N.Y. » A local native and U.S. Marine killed in a plane crash last month will be honored by the village and town Wednesday.
The town and village, in partnership with the family of Maj. Caine M. Goyette, will host a memorial ceremony at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Soldiers and Sailors Park on Broad Street.
Goyette was killed along with 14 other Marines and a Navy sailor, when their KC-130 transport plane crashed in rural Mississippi. Goyette was the higest-ranking Marine on the flight, which had departed from Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh.
A native of Waterford, Goyette attended Waterford-Halfmoon Schyools and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before joining the military in 1994. He was commissioned as an active-duty officer in 2002 and flew missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, a special task force in Africa and other humanitarian missions.
According to military officials, the KC-130 carrying Goyette and his fellow Marines had a midair emergency and crashed in rural Lefloe County, in the Mississippi River delta. Witnesses said they saw the plan disintegrating in the air before it crashed, leaving a debris field about three miles in diameter.
For more information on Wednesday’s ceremony, call the town supervisor’s office at 235-8184 or the Saratoga County Veterans Service Agency at 8844115.