As Shock Hits Hawaii, Grief Spreads

The helicopter went down in a sandstorm, half a world away in Iraq. But with word that at least 27 of the dead were from the Marine Corps air station at Kaneohe Bay, grief spread across the islands as Hawaii sought to cope with the biggest one-day loss of its troops since the attack on Pearl Harbor more than 63 years ago.

“I’m not really a woman with words. I can just say that there’s a certain numbness, a shock that people are feeling,” said Charlee Haili, a bartender at the Creekside, a popular hangout a mile or so from the Oahu base.

“We’re talking about some very young men here,” she said, “some very lively men. You see it on the news, but you think, this can’t be our guys.”

The 27 Marines stationed in Hawaii had come from all over the country; they were among 31 U.S. service members who perished aboard the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter that crashed Wednesday while conducting preelection security operations.

The military has not released a complete list of those killed, but some family members have begun to identify their loved ones.

One was 28-year-old Navy Corpsman John Daniel House. Stationed at Pearl Harbor, he had been scheduled to return from his second deployment to Iraq next month. His wife, Melanie, gave birth to their son in Hawaii on Christmas Eve.

In a letter to his parents, Susan and Larry, who live in Simi Valley, House described the sense of responsibility he felt to his comrades.

“I know all of them,” he wrote. “Even in the dark, by their mannerisms. I don’t know how I am going to deal with losing any of them. It is my job to take care of them and keep them safe.”

Susan and Larry House appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday to talk about their son.

In Kaneohe, about 10 miles north of Honolulu, Mayor Mufi Hannemann said he was “shocked and saddened” to hear of the deaths of so many Marines based locally.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of these brave warriors, whose sacrifices will not be forgotten by those of us here in Hawaii,” the mayor said in a statement. “And we pray for the safety of all of the American men and women in uniform who are still deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan.”

In Canyon Lake, Texas, Leroy Hernandez -- a Vietnam War veteran -- was looking forward to his son Anthony’s return home in a few weeks. It was important that he be on the base tarmac to greet his son when he set foot on U.S. soil after a year in combat operations.

Now, he said, he will receive his son in a casket. Joyful homecoming plans have changed to funeral arrangements.

Lance Cpl. Anthony Hernandez, 22, the helicopter crew chief, will be buried at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, a month shy of his first wedding anniversary.

“I reminded him to send me the specific date when he was coming home,” Leroy Hernandez recalled Thursday, speaking of a phone conversation he had had with his son a few days ago. “I wanted to take some time off from work so I could be there when Tony came home. He said he was looking forward to seeing me soon.”

He said his son was a “highly motivated kid” who went on a training regimen after high school in order to meet the Marine Corps weight requirements. He had planned to return to college in Texas when he finished his enlistment in 2007 and get a degree in criminal justice, said his father, who is a nurse and reserve deputy with the Comal County Sheriff’s Department.

“He was committed to what he was doing in Iraq,” the elder Hernandez added. “I want other people to know that these kids believe in what they’re doing. Unfortunately, some of them have to die for what they believe in. My condolences go out to the other families.”

Some family members said they were still awaiting confirmation from the military on their loved ones’ fates, and didn’t yet want to talk about them in the past tense. But they did express pride and belief in the Iraq mission. “I am the proud mother of a Marine,” said Nancy Ramos of Aurora, Ill. Her son, Lance Cpl. Hector Ramos, was thought to have been on the helicopter when it crashed. The 20-year-old, she said, had been motivated to enlist after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Other relatives, however, said the deaths of so many young Americans in a country where so many people seemed to resent their presence could not be justified.

“I’m sure there are many other parents out there that don’t think there is [a good reason] either,” Nadine Finke of Wadsworth, Ohio, told a local newspaper. Her 28-year-old stepson, Sgt. Michael Finke, was among those killed.

In a phone conversation Saturday, Lance Cpl. Jonathan Edward Etterling, 22, of Wheelersburg, Ohio, told his parents he was feeling tired and a bit discouraged; he had lost more than 15 pounds. But he kept going with thoughts of home -- and home-cooked food.

When Marine officers came to the family’s house late Wednesday, William Etterling, Jonathan’s father, said a quick prayer. But it was not answered.

“I prayed: ‘Let him be wounded, let him be wounded,’ ” he said. “My heart just fell.”

*

Verhovek reported from Seattle and Tizon from Hawaii. Times staff writer H.G. Reza in Orange County contributed to this report.