Virginia Beach, Va. — Master Sgt. Michael Lane, in his tuxedo, beamed from his wedding portrait. Tech Sgt. Edwin Richardson's name glistened on a trophy won by a baseball team he once coached.
Golf clubs, a purple teddy bear, a Harley Davidson beer mug and a yellow firefighter's helmet also were displayed Saturday at a memorial service for 18 Virginia National Guard airmen who died March 3 in a military plane crash in Georgia.
They died while "doing something they believed in to their core: serving their country, their state and their communities," Gov. Jim Gilmore told 3,500 family members, service personnel and others at the nondenominational Rock Church.
Three combat helmets and pairs of boots were displayed at the church to honor the Florida National Guardsmen who also were killed. The three, the pilot and two crew members of the plane, will be honored at a memorial service today in Florida.
The 18 Virginia victims belonged to the 203rd Red Horse Flight unit, which can mobilize to build roads, repair runways, construct buildings, dig wells and provide support for U.S. forces. They were returning after a two-week training mission in Florida.
Other dignitaries at the service offered words of comfort to the families.
"Your loved ones, in the tradition of the military, would simply say, 'Carry on in our stead,'" said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "And that you will do."
In a letter read during the service, President Bush praised the airmen as patriots. "We all mourn together at their sudden and unexpected loss," Bush wrote.
In front of the church stood large photographs of each of the guardsmen, along with wreaths and flags.
After the ceremony, mourners filed outside to watch four Air National Guard F-16s fly above the church in "missing man" formation. One jet peeled away from the others to symbolize the fallen men.
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