Flight crew killed in Florida Black Hawk crash identified

NEW ORLEANS -- The Louisiana National Guard on Monday identified the pilots and crew of a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in the Santa Rosa Sound along Florida's Panhandle in a nighttime training exercise in dense fog last week with seven elite Marines aboard.

All eleven on the Black Hawk were killed when the helicopter crashed into about 25 feet of water in the channel of the sound.

Three members of the flight crew were from Louisiana and one was from Virginia.

Piloting the helicopter were Chief Warrant Officer George Wayne Griffin Jr. of Delhi, 37, and Chief Warrant Officer George David Strother of Alexandria, 44. Both were decorated veteran pilots.

Also killed were Staff Sgt. Lance Bergeron, 40, of Thibodaux and Staff Sgt. Thomas Florich, Fairfax, Virginia.

Military burials with full honors were being planned for the dead, said Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis, the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard.

Across Louisiana flags are flying at half-staff until sunset March 20 to honor the guard members and seven Marines who died in the crash March 10.

The soldiers from Hammond each did two tours in Iraq and participated in humanitarian missions after Gulf Coast hurricanes and the 2010 BP oil spill off Louisiana.

Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman, commander of Marine Corps special operations forces, has said they were practicing rappelling down ropes into the water and heading for land, but had decided to abort the mission as too risky.

The crash is being investigated by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center, based in Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Officials previously identified the seven Marines killed in the crash. According to CBS Mobile, Alabama affiliate WKRG-TV, all seven Marines served in Afghanistan, Iraq or both.

Among those killed was 26-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Seif, who had been awarded one of the military's highest honors for heroism only days earlier. He had been commended for his efforts to save a mortally wounded friend in heavy gunfire in Afghanistan.

The other Marine victims have been identified as Staff Sgt. Marcus Bawol, 27, of Warren, Michigan; Staff Sgt. Kerry Michael Kemp, 27, of Port Washington, Wisconsin; Capt. Stanford H. Shaw, III, 31, from Basking Ridge, New Jersey; Master Sgt. Thomas A. Saunders, 33, from Williamsburg, Virginia; Staff Sgt. Trevor P. Blaylock, 29, from Lake Orion, Michigan and Staff Sgt. Liam A. Flynn, 33, from Queens, New York.