3 Minnesota Families Planning Memorial Services For Guardsmen Killed In Chopper Crash
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Plans have been announced for the three Minnesota families who are planning funerals for the national guardsmen killed in a helicopter crash.
Chief warrant officers James Rogers Jr. and Charles Nord, and Sgt. Kort Plantenberg, died when their Black Hawk went down last week.
The three guardsmen were on a maintenance test flight from St. Cloud when they crashed near a farm in Kimball. They had radioed a distress call before going down.
They were assigned to Company C, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion based in St. Cloud. Their unit had just returned from a nine-month deployment in the Middle East, where they conducted medical evacuations in support of Operation Spartan Shield and Operation Inherent Resolve.
A funeral for Rogers will be held Sunday at Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted High School. A funeral for Nord will be Monday at Perham High School. And the funeral for Plantenberg is Thursday at St. John's Abbey Church in Collegeville.
Fellow Minnesota Guard members held a memorial ceremony at Fort Hood in Texas on Sunday. The aviators bowed their heads before three battlefield crosses, and saluted the soldiers' sacrifice through their tears.
A U.S. Army safety investigation team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, is investigating the crash site. There's no timeline of when information will be released to the public.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Charles Nord's family.
