Military plane crash victims include first U.S. servicewoman to die since war began

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Posted 7:35AM on Thursday, January 10, 2002

The seven Marines killed when a military plane crashed Wednesday in Pakistan included the first U.S. servicewoman to die since the war on terrorism began. Sgt. Jeannette L. Winters, 25, of Du Page, Ill., was a radio operator who joined the Marine Corps in 1997. All the victims were based at the Marine Corps Station in Miramar, Calif., near San Diego. "Any time you hear one Marine, from anywhere, has lost his life, it's just sad. It's even harder on you when they come from your home base," said Maj. T.V. Johnson, director of public affairs at the Marine base. Among the other victims were Lance Cpl. Bryan P. Bertrand, of Coos Bay, Ore., who had served as a Marine for three years and could have been home about a month ago. But he volunteered for another tour of duty, said his father, Bruce. "He didn't want to be on the sidelines," Bruce Bertrand said from his Coos Bay home, along the southern Oregon coast. "He loved what he was doing." Bertrand was single, and the youngest of three children. The family last saw him in July, when he returned home for his sister's wedding. "It's terrible, but we're proud of him," Bertrand said. In Montgomery, Ala., Deloris Bryson said she had just spoken earlier this week with her only child, Gunnery Sgt. Stephen L. Bryson. "He just called to let me know he was thinking about me on Tuesday," she told The Birmingham News. "It was his birthday. He turned 36." Bryson, who was married, was a flight engineer who joined the Marines in 1983 after graduating from high school. "It was a challenge and he rose to the occasion," she told the newspaper. "He really loved flying. He always had a passion for flying." Sgt. Nathan P. Hays, a 21-year-old flight mechanic, grew up in Wilbur, Wash., a small town about 55 miles west of Spokane. He joined the Marines right after high school, according to his former teacher and football coach, Bill Grigsby. "He was a quiet kid, very unassuming, very proud of who he was and what he was and where he was from -- and happy with the people around him and happy with his life," Grigsby said. Matthew W. Bancroft, 29, of Redding, Calif., had a lifelong dream of flying for the military, friends and family members said. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1994 and later joined the Marines. "This is truly sad," said Bob Osborne, his basketball coach at Burney High School in Redding. "But I think that if a person has to leave this world, doing it for your country is the best way to go." The other victims were identified by the Department of Defense as: the co-pilot, Capt. Daniel G. McCollum, 29, of Richland, S.C.; and Staff Sgt. Scott N. Germosen, 37, of New York. In the shops, all-night restaurants and strip malls that line the fringes of Miramar, people reacted with sadness when learning about the crash. "Sept. 11 brought it as close to home as it can possibly get for me," said Sarah Lindsay, a waitress working late Wednesday night at Keith's, a 24-hour restaurant near the base that is a popular hangout for Marines. "I think I knew exactly from Sept. 11 that it was going to be people that I knew and people that I see on a regular basis." "At that point, it made me sad," she continued. "I expected all this stuff to happen. In all honesty, I'm surprised there's not more fatalities." Pentagon officials said there were no signs the military tanker plane, a KC-130 used for in-flight refueling or hauling cargo, was brought down by hostile action. U.S. Central Command said from its Tampa, Fla., headquarters that the plane crashed as it was making its landing approach at a base in southwestern Pakistan. The Marines were part of the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352, whose history includes service in every major U.S. military action since World War II. Known as the "Raiders," the squadron was activated on April 1, 1943. Its logo shows an aircraft between a pair of crossed swords with the word "Raiders" above it.