Tustin Marine Is Missing in Fall Off Ship

A 20-year-old Tustin-based Marine bound for the Persian Gulf is missing and presumed drowned after falling off the deck of the helicopter carrier Tripoli and into the Arabian Sea, officials announced Tuesday.

Cpl. Steven Mosier, 20, a helicopter technician from Arkansas who had been based at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station for about a year, fell overboard about 9:45 p.m. Friday, Marine officials said. Divers were unable to recover Mosier’s body in a 24-hour search of the surrounding waters.

“We don’t know exactly how he fell or anything of that nature,” said Cpl. Christy McGill, a Tustin Marine base spokeswoman. “It’s under investigation.”

Chief Petty Officer Steve Lawson, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, said Mosier was apparently working on the rear of a CH53 Sea Stallion helicopter. Witnesses said Mosier tumbled, hit his head on the edge of the deck and went into the water.

Lawson said an immediate rescue attempt was launched and the Rushmore stayed in the area for 24 hours while divers searched for Mosier’s body.

“He fell right on the edge of the landing deck,” said his father, Ray Mosier, who was informed of his son’s apparent death on Saturday at the family home in Wynne, Ark., about 90 miles east of Little Rock.

A witness, who was unable to save Mosier, said the Marine was unconscious when he hit the water.

“He sank immediately and couldn’t activate his life jacket,” the elder Mosier said.

Mosier, who enlisted in the Marines in 1992, shipped out with his Tustin unit, Medium Helicopter Squadron 166 in June for a routine tour of duty on the Tripoli.

“They had been at sea for about four months,” the elder Mosier said. “They were making a cruise of the Pacific and he had been in Nairobi and the helicopter squadron he was assigned to had been flying food and medical supplies to the people in Rwanda.”

Last week, however, President Clinton ordered the Tripoli to the Persian Gulf in the wake of the Iraqi troop buildup along the Kuwaiti border.

Steven Mosier was active in his church and was a 1992 graduate of Wynne High School, where he was a two-year football team starter.

“Steve was a very dedicated individual,” said Wynne School Supt. Darrell Smith.

Football coach Don Campbell said he was “impressed with how hard he worked. I think the kids really looked up to him.”

“He always wanted to be Marine,” said his father, who is a World War II Army veteran. “He was proud of it. He went where he was told to go, he did what he was told to do. He was an outstanding Marine.”

Mosier committed to joining the Marines when he was only a junior in high school, said Ray Mosier. The youth even turned down a four-year academic scholarship to a local college to enter the Marines.

“He was handy with computer and electronic gadgets,” said Ray Mosier. “He thought that would be a good field to get into.”

Steven Mosier’s wife, Stefanie, returned to Arkansas this summer to study accounting after he shipped out in June. The couple’s two-year wedding anniversary is today.

“They were high school sweethearts,” said Ray Mosier. “She was the only girlfriend he ever really had.”

Ray Mosier was looking forward to hunting and fishing with his son in December when Steven was scheduled to come home on leave.

“He and I were hunting and fishing companions,” Mosier said. “But now he won’t be there anymore.”

Steven Mosier had two older sisters and an older brother.

“Being that he was the youngest, Steve and I spent a lot of time together when the other children left,” added his father. “I remember when he was a little kid he would be watching cartoons and he’d see me with my fishing pole and he’d say, ‘Wait a minute, Dad, let me go with you.’ ”

Services for Mosier are scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church in Wynne.

Times staff writer Mark I. Pinsky and the Associated Press contributed to this report.