DirkaDirka.RedGriffins.org

I’ve lost a few friends while in the service. There have been times that I didn’t know if I would make it myself - whatever scrape or close call occurred I made it out.

Those who didn’t still deserve my remembrance. I have a few friends, some close, some not so close.

All were brothers

I recall five years ago I was at the gas pump at Costco here in San Diego and saw a helo patch and aircrew wings on the flight suit of the guy next to me.

I introduced myself, rattled off four names and he brightened when he recognized one. I told him that guy used to be my roommate off-base.

He stuck out his hand, saying, Good to meet you, Brother.

We all ran the seawall. We ran the obstacle course and the cross country course. We sweat together. We bled together. We learned our inner limits and then we pushed them farther than we thought possible.

In doing so, we grew up together and as such, we were brothers.

The first two fleet S-3 Viking AWs I met are both dead. Both died outside the combat zone by violent means. One as the casualty of a robbery in progress, the other from self-inflicted wounds, perhaps from scars we all share.

We all hurt when one of us hurts

I remember one fall day in 1989 Millington, Tennessee when I was in A School going out to the flight line to see the Viking. I had wanted to fly in jets since I found out it was possible for this 17-year-old volunteer to do so. McCracken and Mongo (at least I think it was Mongo) were standing by the jet.

Trevor McCracken - VS-38 Red Griffin Viking SENSO d. 1992

I remember Crack particularly because he was the one who let me, as an 18 year old sit in the SENSO station for the first time on a cold Sunday in Tennessee. Climbing in, I remember the smell of the aircraft I would later fly nearly 900 hours in, I remember the walkthrough he gave me on the ejection seat. I promised myself I would fly in one of those jets.

Crack served with VS-38 during Operation Desert Storm, got an air medal, and would later return to Millington as an instructor. It was his unexpected death only a few months after starting his first shore duty that shocked all of us who knew him.

Here is an excerpt from the appeal case file from Tennessee found on FindLaw.com

Derrick Taylor and David Poindexter are brothers. On April 24, 1992 they entered the Bank of Mason; and, brandishing pistols, ordered the bank tellers to put money from the teller drawers into pillowcases they had brought. Defendant Taylor also forced the bank’s president to open the bank vault. Defendants then made all the bank employees lie on the floor as they left the bank building. As they departed, the duo removed their ski masks, and got into a four-door, blue Chevrolet Caprice, bearing license plate MRC-931, and drove off.

Defendants led a string of police officers on a high speed chase from Mason to Millington, Tennessee, and ultimately to the Millington Naval Air Station, about fifteen or twenty miles from Mason. When defendants reached Millington, Taylor, the driver, turned onto Bethuel Road, driving in a northerly direction. Bethuel is a two-lane road that runs along the eastern edge of Millington Naval Air Station.

A Chevy Lumina and a pickup truck were traveling ahead of defendants in the same direction. As defendants, driving north in the south-bound lane, attempted to pass the slower-moving cars in the left-hand lane, they broadsided the Chevy Lumina as it was making a left-hand turn into the naval housing area. The collision pushed the Lumina into a large tree. The driver, Trevor McCracken was critically injured in the crash and died several days later.

The pickup truck, which had been directly behind McCracken’s car, pulled over to offer assistance. Defendants, who had left their now wrecked Chevrolet, ran up to the pickup truck with their guns drawn. Taylor ran to the driver’s side, where Matt Wagner was seated, and Poindexter ran to the passenger’s side, occupied by Ray Morgan. When Wagner attempted to put his truck in reverse, defendant Taylor shot through the driver’s door window, shattering it. The single shot struck Wagner; and the broken glass struck Morgan. Wagner drove off after being shot. He later lost a kidney as a result.

At this point, Millington police officers arrived. Defendants ran into the Navy base’s family housing area. They came upon a woman, Christine Romero Brock, who was out on her back porch with her two children. Defendants told Brock that they had been in an accident. She offered to call an ambulance and moved toward her back door. Defendants seized Brock and forced her into the house with them. Defendants held Brock and her son hostage in the house for approximately half an hour. Her one-year old daughter was left outside alone.

The officers followed a trail of defendants’ blood to Brock’s porch, and surrounded the home. Moments later they burst inside and arrested defendants. Defendants were wearing the same clothes they had on during the robbery. The stolen money was found scattered in the base housing area. Defendant Poindexter’s .38 pistol was found in a closet of Brock’s home.

Just so you know how the appeal went:

We have reviewed the remaining issues raised by defendants and determined that they do not warrant discussion. In summation, we AFFIRM the defendants’ judgments of convictions as well as their sentences.

Crack was also the guy whose slot in the squadron I took over when I got there as a nugget aircrewman from the FRAC, VS-41 in 1992.

I was the only nugget, I had a big mouth and an even bigger ego. I hadn’t "Been there - done that" yet and I was the only AW without an Air Medal.

I made rate that June. I was now the newest 2nd Class in the shop. The other thirds were blown away. Not only did I have McCracken’s shoes to fill but I also outranked eight other guys who had been to Desert Storm.

Casper and Wallace flew out for the funeral. Yes, we sent a squadron jet there at taxpayer expense.

It was the right thing to do.

Over this Memorial Day I’ll do more of these for our fallen brothers. This is too heavy a subject for me to just gloss over without thinking through exactly what to write.

If you’ve got comments for any of them, post them or contact me directly.