Sad day for Naval Aviation

RIP. I had initially heard they had ejected and had some hope for them . Too bad.
 
The wife of one of the pilots is also in Naval aviation. She was deployed in Bahrain when the accident happened and they have a two-year-old child together. Prayers to all.
 
I hope this does not come off as insensitive, but:

Both pilots died doing exactly what they wanted to be doing. They were serving their country alongside their brothers in arms for whom both would have laid down their lives to protect.

May they rest in peace. It really is unfortunate that tragedies like this happen when you least expect it.
 
The WSO was former standout Navy linebacker Caleb King...pictures show the tail hook was down. Standard configuration as part of the emergency procedure to take a field arrested landing with an engine failure.

Typical news story...”a routine training mission.” I hate that phrase...there is nothing routine when you strap on a military aircraft and train aggressively...

God bless them and their families...you will always be remembered by the Naval Aviation fraternity...
 
My DH, a carrier-based jet pilot, always told me before deployments or any flying day, if something happened to him while he was flying, he had no regrets, he would go quickly and while doing something he loved. I just made sure to tell him I loved him before every parting for the day, even if we were having a bumpy time.

I always think of this poem by John Magee.

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of
Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.
Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.


The author was a Spitfire pilot, who died not long after he wrote it.
Here’s his story. Hauntingly similar to this one - too close to the ground to survive.
http://www.skygod.com/quotes/highflight.html
 
Prayers to the families . . .

The mother of the pilot, the 2007 USAFA Grad, is a USAFA '83 Classmate and a great lady . . .

We have Navy friends that know the WSO well , a 2012 USNA Grad . . .

Our hearts are broken . . .

The military, whether Army, Navy, AF or Marine . . . Ends up being a small community . . .

2 heroes gone . . . They were doing what they loved to do . . .

USAFA and AF tradition . . . Third verse of the AF Song, USAFA's Alma Mater, in tribute to our Navy sons . . .

"Here's a Toast . . . to the host . . . Of those who love the vastness of the sky . . .
To a Friend . . . we send . . . a message of his brother men who fly . . .
We drink . . . to those . . . who gave their all of old . . .
Then down . . . we roar . . . to score a rainbow's pot of gold . . .
A toast . . . to the host . . . Of the men we boast . . . the US Air Force . . ."
 
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