Reagan Leads Somber Tribute to Crash Dead

President Reagan on Monday led a somber tribute to American soldiers killed in a fiery air crash last week and then he and his wife, Nancy, spent nearly an hour comforting stricken family members, one by one, as a military band played solemn hymns.

“I know that there are no words that can make your pain less or make your sorrow less painful,” Reagan said in his brief formal remarks to about 600 mourners. “How I wish there were.”

Adding a special poignancy to the Christmas-season tragedy, a toddler cried, “I want my daddy,” throughout the memorial ceremony for 248 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, conducted in a hangar at the elite fighting corps’ home base at Ft. Campbell Army Air Field.

Returning From Sinai

The troops were returning from a six-month tour of duty in the Sinai Peninsula when their chartered DC-8 crashed and burned last Thursday on takeoff from Gander International Airport in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, where it had stopped to refuel. The soldiers had been serving with the Multinational Force and Observers, a peacekeeping organization that monitors compliance with the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Eight crew members also died in the crash.

The President and Mrs. Reagan were accompanied at the simple ceremony by national security adviser John M. Poindexter, White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Agriculture Secretary John R. Block, a former member of the 101st Airborne.

Retired Gen. William A. Westmoreland, a former commander of the 101st, also attended, as did about 200 soldiers in desert camouflage who had returned from the division’s peacekeeping assignment in the Middle East a week earlier.

Speaking in front of the division’s insignia, a large American bald eagle on a black shield, Reagan praised the idealism of the 245 men and three women aboard the Arrow Air flight.

“Who but an idealist would go to hard duty in one of the most troubled places of the world--and go not as a matter of conquest, but as part of a force that existed to keep the peace?” Reagan asked.

Looking pale, he added: “Tragedy is nothing new to mankind, but somehow it’s always a surprise--never loses its power to astonish. You do not grieve alone. We grieve as a nation, together, as together we say goodby to those who died in the service of their country.”

Maj. Gen. Burton D. Patrick, commander of the 101st Airborne, led the weeping family members in singing “Amazing Grace” and “America the Beautiful.”

Afterward, the Reagans walked grim-faced between the rows of orange plastic chairs to personally greet the parents, spouses and children of the dead, many of whom wore black armbands.

“I’m sorry,” Reagan said repeatedly as Mrs. Reagan clutched a tissue which she used to wipe away tears during the emotional exchanges. Both the President and the First Lady embraced and consoled family members, sometimes pausing to bend down and pat a child’s cheek.

Many of the mourners asked Reagan to sign their programs, which he did willingly. One mother gave him a snapshot of her son, which he placed in his breast pocket.

As the President departed after shaking more than 400 hands, a military band launched into a spirited rendition of “As the Army Goes Rolling Along.”

At Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the bodies of 20 crash victims were returned Monday from Newfoundland for identification and preparation for burial. Two planes carrying 10 bodies each were met by a 123-member honor guard from Ft. Campbell and a 23-member ceremonial guard, along with an Army field band from Ft. Myer, Va.