Reservist Crash Victims Saluted as Volunteers in Cause of Peace

With songs, prayers and tears, the families and friends of nine Air Force reservists killed in a military plane crash celebrated the airmen’s lives Saturday.

“Life was lost, but not in vain. It was given by volunteers who selflessly served the cause of peace and freedom in an unprecedented United Nations effort,” Gen. Hansford T. Johnson told about 2,000 people.

More than 300 relatives of the men attended the ceremony in a hangar at Kelly Air Force Base. It followed two days of funerals for the officers and enlisted men, who were part of the 433rd Military Airlift Wing at Kelly.

The volunteers were among 13 people killed Aug. 28 when a C-5A Galaxy cargo plane crashed and burned on takeoff at Ramstein Air Base in West Germany. The plane was taking supplies to the Persian Gulf region under Operation Desert Shield.

Wreaths decorated the hangar for the service. Patriotic songs recorded by Ray Charles and Elvis Presley resounded through the breezy building, and sunlight beamed in from one open side.

Air Force officers began the nondenominational service by placing neatly folded American flags beneath the identification tags of each of the dead reservists.

Staff Sgt. Lorenzo Galvan Jr.--the only surviving 433rd reservist on the ill-fated flight--placed a single red rose on each flag.

Galvan, who has declined to give interviews since the crash, issued a statement Saturday, saying:

“Obviously, I have suffered a great loss. Our flying squadron and wing has suffered an even greater loss. But the greatest loss falls on the families of our departed crew members.”

After the service--concluded by an F-16 flyover in the “missing man” formation--dozens of family members moved outside to look at and climb around on a C-5, described by the Air Force as the non-communist world’s largest aircraft.

The 433rd reserve wing operates C-5s and has been taking part in the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East for weeks.

When the reservists were killed, their wing had not been called to active duty. The men were volunteers who had arranged time off from their civilian jobs to make the Middle East missions.