Posted on 06/23/2009 2:55:49 PM PDT by frankenMonkey
An F-16 pilot missing after his jet crashed overnight during training at Hill Air Force Base was killed, according to a friend of the pilot's family in Candler, N.C.
Hill officials would not release the pilot's name or confirm his death, but Bill Jamison confirmed that Capt. George Bryan Houghton, 28, of Candler, was killed during a nighttime exercise over the Utah Test and Training Range in the massive, rugged and remote west desert around 10:25 p.m. Monday.
Col. Scott Dennis, commander of the 388th Fighter Wing, said the pilot's body was recovered near Wendover after a seven-hour search. Houghton, a member of the 421st Fighter Squad, was expecting to be deployed to Afghanistan in the next couple of weeks.
Jamison, whose son was friends with Houghton, said Hill's 388th Fighter Wing commander called the airman's family to notify them of the fatal accident Tuesday at 3 a.m. EST. He said the family did not know if the crash was a result of a problem with the aircraft or any further details on what had happened to cause the crash.
"They're pretty much devastated," Jamison said of Houghton's family, who also nearly lost their son Daniel in Afghanistan during a 2007 helicopter crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Prayers for his family and friends.
Prayers of thanks for his service to our country.
RIP.
/johnny
Why was his family notified by phone? Shouldn’t that have been done in person by officials from his unit?
May God bless this family who sacrificed so much so the rest of us can do things like post on FR.
Keep these souls in your hearts, fellow FReepers, as there are few men that will ever match their donation to the ever-lasting crusade known as FREEDOM.
Man, bummed.
I always hated to respond to these kind of aircraft incidents.
Prayers for the family.
Probably poor wording by the media. The commander could have notified them by phone of the aircraft mishap without mentioning status of their son since it took seven hours to locate his body. I doubt (would hope) he would not tell them of their son's fate over the phone.
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