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The 76th Airlift Squadron held its 15th annual memorial service for the 35 members of call sign IFO-21 April 5 on Ramstein.
“We still remember the family and friends we lost 16 years ago,” said Col. Stephen Lambert, 86th Airlift Wing vice commander. “No matter whether we knew them by blood or by service, tragedies like this stay with us a long time.”
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, his delegation and six crew members from the 76th AS died in a crash during a mission to rebuild Croatia after years of war.
“This mission was extremely complex from the start,” said Lt. Col. Anthony Schenk, 76th Airlift Squadron commander. “The crew was flown to Zagreb in another squadron aircraft to continue the mission already in execution.”
This was a mission that had numerous routing and destination changes directly in the center of a combat zone, he said.
Added to this complexity was poor approach design coupled with poor
weather — all factors that came together on a mountainside outside of Dubrovnik.
Schenk and the rest of the 76th AS used this memorial service to pay tribute to their fallen crew members and as a learning experience.
“We hold this event every year in honor of the six crew members our squadron lost in 1996,” Schenk said. “This is our way to pay tribute and to honor them and to make sure we retain the lessons of the tragedy.”
During the ceremonies held over the years, there are various things done to pay respects to the crew and passengers. This year, members of the 76th AS stood in formation, there was a mural presentation and the shows of respect ended with a flyover by a C-40.
Since the crash, mission planning and execution have changed Air Force wide.
“The way the Air Force approves approaches and approach design was changed that day,” Schenk said. “If no Department of Defense approaches are available into an airfield, a thorough review and approval process by terminal approach procedure professionals is required. This requirement ensures the fidelity and design of approaches used by crews worldwide.”
Making sure this doesn’t happen again is how Schenk and the other members of the 76th AS plan to honor the six crew members’ memories.
“The best way we honor these six crew members has been and always will be to do it right, every time, by the checklist, by the book and by what we know to be right,” Schenk said. “We do these checks while minimizing risk to the maximum extent possible, so that AJ, Tim, Jake, Shelley, Cheryl and Rob continue to live on with every successful mission flown by the men and women of the 76th Airlift Squadron.”
