Coast Guard Feature Story/ Handout: Lost but not forgotten

Lost but not forgotten
Story and photos by Seaman Sabrina Elgammal
First District Public Affairs

Four Coast Guardsmen were killed Feb. 18, 1979 when the Pelican rescue helicopter CG-1432, based in Cape Cod, Mass., crashed 180 miles southeast of Cape Cod while attempting to medevac a crewmember from a Japanese fishing vessel during a severe storm.

Friends and family gather around the memorial
to honor the lost crew of flight 1432 after the
wreath was laid on the monument. This year
was the 29th anniversary since the crew went
down 180 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

During the rescue operation, the helicopter lost power and was forced to land on the ocean. The heavy seas quickly overturned the powerless aircraft, and only one crewmember was able to escape.

"I held on for dear life," said Mark Torr, the lone survivor. "When the plane hit, everything was upside down and there was about a foot of air above me. I took a deep breath and swam to the surface. I just held on to the nose wheel, which was sticking out of the water."

Torr, an aviation machinist's mate, was pulled from the water by the very people he'd been sent to help -- the crew of the Japanese fishing vessel Kaisei Maru. The boat circled the powerless aircraft for more than 15 hours, looking for survivors and then, later, recovering the victims.

On the anniversary of the crash each year, the crew lost in the tragedy is remembered in a wreath-laying ceremony at Air Station Cape Cod, where several buildings and a street are named for them.

"This ceremony was an opportunity to recognize the tremendous sacrifice that the air crew made while attempting to save the lives of total strangers," said Lt. j.g. Adam Young, a Jayhawk helicopter pilot. "This dedication and selflessness is the cornerstone of our service and we are proud to remember and honor their duty still today."

As they have since 1980, friends and family attended the ceremony and reminisced about the crew and the aviation department they remembered from before.

"The memorial to the lost crew of CG1432 sits at the
front entrance of Air Station Cape Cod. The crew lost in
the tragedy was remembered in a wreath-laying
ceremony at the air station, where several buildings and
a street are named for them."

Chief Petty Officer Rex Barton was the watch captain in the air station's operations center on the night of the crash. When a second helicopter that was launched to search for survivors returned with just the injured person off the fishing vessel and Torr, both hoisted from the Kaisei Maru, Bartons' heart sank.

"For many years I have been grieving their loss," said Barton. "But I know their journey now lives on in those who continue to risk their lives for others in danger."

Torr said that during his training his instructor made him put on a helmet and visor and try to locate all a helicopter's parts by touch.

"I asked myself ‘when would I ever be in the dark in this thing?' he said. "But it was that lesson that saved my life."

"The summer after the crash everyone left this place, including myself, for various reasons," said Chief Petty Officer Pete McDougall, an aviation maintenance technician. "It was just too hard to move on because we were all such close friends, but that is why I re-enlisted in the Coast Guard -- to carry out the journey of my lost brothers."

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