Craig Valentine

Lieutenant Junior Grade, United States Navy

August 13, 1965 – September 14, 1991
Age – 26
Ann Arbor, MI

Desert Storm, Persian Gulf
131X, HM-15 Blackhawks, DET TWO

On 14 September 1991, in the Arabian Gulf off the coast of Bahrain six squadron mates of HM-15 DET TWO died when their MH-53E helicopter plunged into the Persian Gulf, departing the USS Peleliu. Ironically, that particular airframe, Hurricane 16, was the MH-53E that replaced the one lost a few years earlier off the coast of California, Hurricane 6. Hurricane 16 was departing the Peleliu at night while on a resupply mission from Bahrain. The well fires from the Gul War were still obscuring the sky and played a part in the crew’s demise.

Lieut. Comdr. Tim O’Leary, a spokesman for the United States Naval Command, said the aircraft had crashed on Saturday night, soon after taking off from the amphibious assault ship Peleliu, 40 miles north of Bahrain. The bodies were not recovered until three days later.

He added that the cause of the crash had not been determined.

Officials at Alameda Naval Air Station near San Francisco, where the victims’ squadron was based, today identified those killed as: Lieut. Thomas Stewart Larson of Jamestown, N.Y.; Lieut. (j.g.) Craig Eugene Valentine of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Petty Officer 2d Class Michael Richard Butch, Aurora, Colo.; Petty Officer 3d Class George Scott Finneral, Lowell, Mass.; Petty Officer 3d Class William Aaron Holt, Sand Springs, Okla., and Airman Jorge Luis Guerro, of Chicago.