Hawaii-based Marines came from all over U.S.

HONOLULU – Most of the troops lost in the U.S. military’s deadliest crash of the Iraq war were based in Hawaii, but they came from coast to coast, from Florida to New Hampshire, from Ohio to Oregon.

Some of the families of the 30 Marines and a Navy medic killed Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in a sandstorm shared their memories and their grief after military officials told them of the deaths. The Pentagon identified the sailor killed as Petty Officer 3rd Class John D. House, of Ventura, Calif., but said it would not publicly identify the Marines until all families were notified. So far, the families themselves have identified 12 of the Marines.

House was a 28-year-old who never got the chance to meet his baby boy, born Christmas Eve.

House had written letters home describing the camaraderie and responsibility he felt for the Marines in his unit, his parents told the Ventura County Star.

“In one of the letters he wrote, ‘I know all of them … even in the dark, by their mannerisms,’ ” Susan House of Simi Valley, Calif., read, choking back tears. “‘I don’t know how I am going to deal with losing any of them. It is my job to take care of them and keep them safe.”’

The CH-53E Super Stallion went down in western Iraq while transporting troops for security operations in preparation of Sunday’s elections.

Twenty-seven of the dead were based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay, according to Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. It was the single worst loss of Hawaii troops since the attack on Pearl Harbor more than 60 years ago.

The helicopter crew was from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.

Cpl. James Lee Moore’s family heard of the 24-year-old Roseburg, Ore.-native’s death Wednesday night, when several Marines came to their door, said his stepmother, Suzanne Moore.

“It still hasn’t sunk in,” she said. “We can’t get past, ‘We regret to inform you.’ “

Hector Ramos, 20, of the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Ill., joined the Marines soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks, his mother Nancy Ramos said.

Others killed, according to their families, included Cpl. Sean Kelly, 23, of Pitman, N.J.; Cpl. Timothy Gibson, 23, of Merrimack, N.H.; Lance Cpl. Rhonald Dain Rairdan of San Antonio; Nathan Moore of Champaign, Ill.; and Lance Cpl. Tony Hernandez, 22, of Canyon Lake, Texas.

Ohio lost at least three Marines in the crash: Cpl. Richard Gilbert Jr., 28, of Dayton; Lance Cpl. Jonathan Edward Etterling, 22, of Wheelersburg; and Sgt. Michael Finke Jr., 28, of Wadsworth.

Nadine Finke, stepmother of Michael Finke, said she doesn’t believe there is any justification for the war that claimed his life.

“I’m sure there are many other parents out there that don’t think there is either,” Finke, of Wadsworth, Ohio, told WKYC-TV of Cleveland.

The father of Spc. Gael Saintvil, 24, of Orlando, Fla., feared the worst as soon as he heard about the crash.

“It happened for a good cause, for the country. … Don’t like it, but what’s happened has happened,” Belga Saintvil told WESH-TV in Orlando.