VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — To this day, March 3, 2001, goes down as the worst peace-time aviation mishap in the history of the National Guard.
Eighteen local airmen died that day, 20 years ago on Wednesday. Their names are forever etched in stone at their home base, the State Military Reservation, Camp Pendleton.
At a 20th anniversary memorial service, "Taps" was played and a wreath was was laid to honor the 18 members of the 203rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (Red Horse) Squadron.
They died, alongside three aviators from the Florida Army National Guard, when the C-23 Sherpa they were flying in crashed in a cotton field near Unadilla, Georgia, as they were returning from Florida to NAS Oceana.
Military investigators blamed it on cargo displacement, which was said to have caused aircraft instability. But the general who ordered the investigation ruled that wind shear and powerful storms caused the plane to go down.
Twenty years later, Wednesday was all about remembering those who were lost.
"I made a promise to the families that we would not forget, that we would always remember those guys," said retired Colonel Thomas Turlip, who was the Red Horse commander in 2001.
Colonel Stock Dinsmore was a member of the squadron in '01. He said it is important to always remember his fallen comrades.
"That's the significance of today, that's the significance of the 20 years, to remain on guard, eternally," he said.
Virginia National Guard Adjutant General, Major General Timothy Williams agreed.
"And it's our duty to carry on their memory and we will do that," he said. "We'll do it that every day with purpose and meaning."
Ellen Summerell most certainly remembers. She lost her husband, Technical Sergeant Richard Summerell, that day.
"Two weeks without Ricky was too much," she said. "And I was so happy he was coming home. And now it's been 20 years. I am just amazed how the Lord has carried me through for 20 years. And I'm doing OK. I miss him all the time."
As does the entire Virginia National Guard family, a still-mourning Commonwealth, and a grateful nation.
They are fallen but never forgotten.