3 Minnesota Families Planning Memorial Services For Guardsmen Killed In Chopper Crash
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Plans have been announced for the three Minnesota families who are planning funerals for the national guardsmen killed in a helicopter crash.
Chief warrant officers James Rogers Jr. and Charles Nord, and Sgt. Kort Plantenberg, died when their Black Hawk went down last week.
The three guardsmen were on a maintenance test flight from St. Cloud when they crashed near a farm in Kimball. They had radioed a distress call before going down.
They were assigned to Company C, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion based in St. Cloud. Their unit had just returned from a nine-month deployment in the Middle East, where they conducted medical evacuations in support of Operation Spartan Shield and Operation Inherent Resolve.
A funeral for Rogers will be held Sunday at Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted High School. A funeral for Nord will be Monday at Perham High School. And the funeral for Plantenberg is Thursday at St. John's Abbey Church in Collegeville.
Rest in peace Soldiers. We will never forget.
Posted by Minnesota National Guard on Saturday, December 7, 2019
Fellow Minnesota Guard members held a memorial ceremony at Fort Hood in Texas on Sunday. The aviators bowed their heads before three battlefield crosses, and saluted the soldiers' sacrifice through their tears.
A U.S. Army safety investigation team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, is investigating the crash site. There's no timeline of when information will be released to the public.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Charles Nord's family.