State senator honors 4 Louisiana National Guard members killed in helicopter crash
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — On the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol, a state senator honored the four Louisiana National Guardsmen who died 10 years ago in a Florida helicopter crash.
Sen. Rick Edmonds presented a commemorative flag to family members and those who served with the men in honor of Chief Warrant Officer 4 George Wayne Griffin Jr., Chief Warrant Officer 4 George David Strother, Staff Sgt. Lance Bergeron and Staff Sgt. Thomas Florich. Seven Marines were also aboard the flight and killed in the crash.
The four were killed when their Black Hawk crashed during a training exercise. There were reports of heavy fog at the time of the crash. A 10-year anniversary ceremony is being held in Florida the same day to remember all of the men lost.
Edmonds invited Sgt. Dylan David, who served with the men, to say a few words about them in celebration and mourning.
'I felt we needed to do something like this because as I go to drill week in and week out, I realized that the number of people that I share a room with that knew these men personally is diminishing rapidly,' David said.
Griffin, of Delhi, had been deployed to Iraq twice and joined the Louisiana National Guard in 1994. Strother, of Alexandria, has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and joined the National Guard from 1988-2007 and again in 2009. Bergeron, of Thibodaux, had been deployed to Iraq twice as a Marine and joined the National Guard in 2001. Florich, of Fairfax County, Virginia, joined the Louisiana National Guard in 2007. All left behind wives and children.
'It will be an everlasting reminder that Louisianians don't forget our heroes. We don't take out some other opinion or some other pathway. But we have governors like Gov. Landry and other leaders that remind us on a day to day basis that freedom is not free,' state Sen. Rick Edmonds said.
All four of them had served the state in their positions by responding to the BP oil spill and Hurricanes Katrina, Issac and Rita.
Edmonds said that with the support of Landry, they were able to take the moment out of the day to dedicate March 10 as an official day in honor of the four men.
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