‘Taps’ Echoes at El Toro in Tribute to 3 Marines Killed in Copter Crash

With prayer, hymns and a bugler’s plaintive rendition of “Taps,” El Toro Marines paid tribute Wednesday to three veteran helicopter crewmen who made what their commander called “the ultimate peacetime sacrifice” one week earlier.

Maj. Dudley Wayne Urban, 36, Maj. William John Leslie Anderson, 34, and Sgt. Bradley Arthur Baird, 26, were killed last Thursday night when their CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter slammed into a steep, brush-covered ridge near Trabuco Canyon.

On Wednesday, more than 175 family members, friends and fellow Marines gathered at the El Toro Base Theatre to remember the men who died.

All three had “made the ultimate peacetime sacrifice,” said Lt. Col. Warren T. Reid, commanding officer of the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 764, to which the three were assigned. “They knew helicopter flying tactics must involve some degree of risk. But they loved flying, and they loved their country.”

‘Epitome of Professionalism’

Each was “the epitome of professionalism,” Reid added. Their deaths prove “how fragile are our lives and the aircraft we fly.”

Before the half-hour service began, friends and relatives of the victims stood in the theater’s foyer, greeting friends and describing the shock of the deaths.

Connie Anderson was trying to be controlled, stoic. “I want to see dry eyes! I want to see dry eyes!” the young widow told several friends. But moments later, when a new friend arrived, she burst into tears.

Just a month earlier, Marine Corps families had gathered for a similar memorial service. That one, held at the Tustin air base, was in memory of five active-duty Marines killed when their helicopter, a CH-53E Super Stallion, crashed near the Salton Sea.

The Super Stallion has been plagued with accidents, but the Sea Knight has had a reputation as one of the safest Navy aircraft.

Puzzling Accident

Thursday’s accident also was puzzling because the Sea Knight’s crew had lengthy flying experience. Urban, a reserve officer from Orange, was the helicopter’s pilot. Anderson, a reserve officer from Santa Ana, was the co-pilot and Baird, an active-duty Marine from Irvine, was the crew chief.

The cause of Thursday’s crash is still under investigation, but two Trabuco Canyon residents have said that seconds before they heard the Sea Knight hit the ridge, they saw it fly into low-lying clouds that wreathed the hillsides.

Wednesday afternoon’s service for Urban, Anderson and Baird was a simple one.

On a stage that was decked with funeral wreaths and large sprays of flowers, seven Marine Corps officers sat on folding chairs. One by one, each took the microphone to read a prayer, offer praise for the men who died or simply console their survivors.

Col. Thomas Conley, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 46, also spoke in tribute to the three Marines. And Capt. Jake Walker, maintenance officer for Marine Aircraft Group 46, and Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Wagner, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the group’s tool room, gave scriptural readings.

Afterward, a Marine Corps bugler played a long and mournful “Taps,” and the service was over.

Family members and friends of the three crew members lingered outside, talking and sometimes embracing one another. Behind them, to the east, rose the green foothills of Trabuco Canyon, where the fatal crash occurred. On the day of the crash, the hills had been covered in clouds, but on Thursday the sky was blue, with only a few puffy clouds edging the slopes.

Urban is survived by his wife, Janet, and two children. Baird leaves his wife, Lori, and a 3-year-old daughter. Anderson leaves his wife, Connie, Marine Corps officials said.