A Marine who received the Silver Star last week is among the seven MARSOC troops who died after their UH-60 Black Hawk plunged into waters off the Florida panhandle during a training exercise Tuesday. Four Louisiana National Guardsmen also perished in the crash.
Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman, head of Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, released the identities of all seven Marines the special operations team during a Friday press conference aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, along with new details about the crash. They were all assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion and had arrived on the Gulf Coast March 8 for an annual training exercise.
These are the names and stories of the fallen Marines:
Among Seif, 26, from Holland, Michigan, are: Capt. Stanford H. Shaw, III, 31, from Basking Ridge, New Jersey; Master Sgt. Thomas A. Saunders, 33, from Williamsburg, Virginia; Staff Sgt. Marcus S. Bawol, 26, from Warren, Michigan; Staff Sgt. Trevor P.
Blaylock, 29, from Lake Orion, Michigan; Staff Sgt. Liam A. Flynn, 33, from Queens, New York; and Staff Sgt. Kerry M. Kemp, 27, from Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Four Louisiana National Guardsmen aboard also perished in thecrash.
Staff Sgt. Andrew Seif
On March 6, just days before the helicopter crash, Staff Sgt. Andrew C. Seif, 26, was awarded the Silver Star Medal.
Seif, 26, received the award for facing enemy fire to save a mortally wounded friend in Afghanistan in July 2012.
The Camp Lejeune Globe reported that Seif was from Holland, Michigan. He grew up playing soldier in his backyard and joined the Marines just weeks after graduating from high school.
By 2012, he was a critical skills operator with the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command. Seif and his teammate, Sgt. Justin Hansen, were closing in on one of western Afghanistan's bomb experts, according to the paper. They came under fire, and Hansen was hit. Seif moved Hansen to safer position, treated his teammate's wounds and returned fire.
"The fact that (Seif) continued to fight through the objective to get Sgt. Hansen taken care of, putting himself in the line of fire, speaks volumes to who he is and demonstrates that he would never leave a Marine behind," Osterman said Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman.
Seif's wife was at his side when he received the medal.
He was born in Fairbanks, Alaska.
"I think sometimes the worst situations bring out the best in people, and that day a lot of people showed their worth," Seif told the newspaper.
Staff Sgt. Trevor Blaylock
Staff Sgt. Trevor P. Blaylock, 29, was born in Lake Orion, Michigan, and swam on the varsity swim team. Upon graduation, he attended Henry Ford Community College.
In 2006, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and was previously stationed at Camp Pendleton, California.
He had deployed to Al Anbar Province, Iraq, in support of served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in Al Anbar Province.
Master Sgt. Thomas Saunders
Born in Bonn, Germany, Master Sgt. Thomas A. Saunders, 33, enlisted in the Marines after graduating from high school in Virginia. Following basic training in 1999, he was assigned to Camp Lejeune.
He deployed to Kosovo and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom with a special operations task force.
Staff Sgt. Liam Flynn
Born in Reading, England, Staff Sgt. Liam Flynn, 33, moved to Queens, New York, in 2002.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps that year. After boot camp, he was assigned to Camp Lejeune.
He deployed to served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Capt. Stanford Shaw III
ShawIII, 31, was from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and attended Ridge High School, where he was student government president and captain of the varsity lacrosse team.
He attended the United States Naval Academy and upon his graduation in 2006 became a commissioned Marine officer. After graduating from the Infantry Officer Course, he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.
He served two tours of duty in Iraq, according to information provided by the Marines at Camp Lejeune.
Staff Sgt. Marcus Bawol
Bawol, of Warren, Michigan, "loved everything about the military," said his sister, Brandy Peek.
"He couldn't wait to join. He wanted to fight for our country and was always striving to be the best Marine he could be."
The 27-year-old graduated in 2006 from Warren Mott High School. Bawol played baseball and football and was a member of the school's swim team, according to district Superintendent Robert Livernois.
Bawol attended Olivet College for a year, where he was a catcher on the baseball team.
He had planned to marry his fiancée in October, Peek said.
On Thursday, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts ordered flags in the city, just north of Detroit, flown at half-staff.
Staff Sgt. Kerry Kemp
Staff Sgt. Kerry Michael Kemp, 27, was the proud father of a baby just shy of her first birthday and loved horsing around with his nephews.
"He would wrestle with them. He really got into that, the wrestling and playing. He'd carry them around on his back," said his sister-in-law, Lora Waraksa.
He was a "proud Marine, a loving husband and most wonderful father," she said. He also loved golfing and the ocean — he often took his nephews out to hunt for seashells.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Kemp met his wife, Jenna, at Port Washington High School in Wisconsin, where he was voted "best smile" by his senior class. He graduated in 2005.
He was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
The identities of the four National Guardsmen have yet to be released.
"Any loss of a Marine is a tragedy and so [the incident] is really not one I could put in context or scope," Osterman said during the press conference. "In this case, to have such a tremendous group of Marines, obviously the experience they had and the cohesion and teamwork and everything else that they exhibited, it definitely hit us all hard — and by having that many all at one time."
The downed Black Hawk was one of two heading out that night for water insertion training, Osterman said. The two teams planned to hit the water using fast ropes and head for shore, he said. It's a technique typically used for reconnaissance missions.
They had rehearsed the exercise just hours before in the daylight, Osterman said.
But when fog grew too thick — the area was under a weather advisory, according to officials — the teams opted to abort and return home, he said. Officials realized the Black Hawk was missing when only one returned at about 8:30 p.m. CT. About 30 minutes elapsed before the surviving team was back out, searching for the downed helicopter, Osterman said.
Divers found the Black Hawk's crash site about 9 a.m. the next day. The helicopter's wreckage is under about 25 feet of water in what's known as the Santa Rosa Sound off the coast of the Florida panhandle. All but two bodies have been recovered.
Inclement weather throughout the week hampered recovery efforts.
Earlier in the week, officials said they believed the helicopter hit the water at high speeds and broke apart. The investigation into the cause of the crash remains underway, Osterman said.
In the meantime, the tight-knit MARSOC community has rallied around the families of the fallen men, he said.
"It is a very tight organization and many of these Marines and sailors associated with MARSOC are more senior Marines and the families are all very close," Osterman said. "In this particular case, they were all from the same team so they were very, very close."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
