I write my stories to communicate, share and perhaps teach….but today I write to remember. In remembering people’s name and how they lived (and died), we ensure they live on.
In the skies over California, I happened to be flying during the Veterans Day weekend. On the short flight from Southern California to a connecting airport, I happened to strike up a quick conversation with one of the flight attendants, who happened to have a particular tattoo I recognized. Little did I know this chance encounter would teach me about loss and recovery and shape my weekend to come. As we quickly chatted, the man calmly told me that the tattoos were in honor of his son, who had died in 2024 while serving as a United States Marine. The Marine was Sergeant Alec Langen, who was a Crew Chief on board Tiger-43, a USMC CH-53 Heavy Lift Helicopter flying from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to Imperial County Airport (for fuel) and then onto Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. During night operations (night flying) on February 6th, 2024, the aircraft crashed into a mountain near San Diego during heavy fog and all five crew members were killed. But like most stories involving tragedy, this story doesn’t end there. After an exhaustive investigation, the families of the fallen Marines were allowed to view the un-redacted investigation report. The report laid the blame on pilot error, but also brought light that fact that Tiger-43 had planned fuel stop at the Imperial County Airport that turned into an unscheduled precautionary emergency landing (PEL). The crew had gotten an engine warning and set the aircraft down in a semi-emergent manner. While clearing the fault and checking the airframe, they had determined there was no need for further investigation and communicated with their Squadron Commander to get permission to continue the flight (at night) into San Diego. But another factor that should have grounded the flight right then was the weather coming into Imperial and San Diego County, a mixture of fog and heavy weather, enough to tick the boxes on any helicopter flight safety checklist.
As the flight attendant calmly shared the information and I later looked it up to do some research, I recognized him from pictures and then read different bits of the same story written from different viewpoints. No matter how the story was written, the facts remain. I visibly noticed the poise and grace this Father shared with me as a random passenger as he told me that his son had died just a short time ago. When he (and I) remember Sergeant Langen, his memory will live on. I found this experience to be especially poignant during this Veterans Day Holiday, as both father and son had served as Crew Chiefs….and now this gallant father had to bear the burden of his son passing…but in SUCH a way of grace. As he prepared to walk away, he remarked that at least his son had died doing something he loved….he had died a US Marine while flying on helicopters.
Over the next three days of the Veterans Day weekend, I would attend a trail running seminar where I roomed with several other people. During those three days, I was blown away to learn that one of the men in my room had also lost his son, in combat while they were both serving in the US Army. One of the other men in my room had lost his brother in combat….while both were serving on active duty in the US Army. But this wasn’t a grief or loss seminar or anything of the kind, the facts just came up in normal conversations. I was amazed that these men didn’t wear this grief all over, their resilience and ability to remember their loved ones allowed them to continue to live and keep the memories of their loved ones alive. The fact it was Veterans Day weekend and Dia De Los Muertos played a part, as these are times to remember the living and the dead.
Veterans Day is our holiday to remember all men and women who have served our country, different from Memorial Day which is a day to remember those who died while fighting overseas. I have written a number of posts to honor the Veterans Day weekend, but I’m not sure if any of those posts were as hard to write as this one.
So this post has a tie to Veterans Day and the Veterans Day weekend, but it’s out a week late….why? For this post, I purposely put it out a week late so that I could have time to think through the writing. But it’s also put out late because I think we have a tendency to go through the excitement of time off for Veterans Day weekend and barbecues and travel etc and then go back to work, moving on from the memory and purpose of the weekend. So I put this particular post out a weekend later to hope that you read it and continue to remember those we’ve lost. Thanks for reading.
Lots of adventures going on in the LF2TS world. I’ve DNF’ed out of another ultra, gone to Trail Running camp, bought another adventure vehicle and we’re soon pivoting to get into camping mode….going to Zion to canyoneer. Stay with us, adventures await!
Other Posts I’ve written in honor of the Veterans Day Weekend:
Happy Veterans Day and Happy Marine Corps Birthday
Not Forgotten: Happy Veterans Day
Remembering Veterans This 2020
United States Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans’ Day 2021
Do You Know WHY We Thank Veterans?
Memorial Day & Veterans Day…What’s The Difference?
Discover more from Live Free 2 Travel Slow
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
One Response
This is so heartfelt. Su much was learned from a quick encounter. Beautifully conveyed. We are proud