Two of the 15 Marines and a Navy sailor killed in a military plane crash earlier this week in Mississippi were from Washington State.
Marine Cpl. Collin Schaaff, 22, graduated from Franklin Pierce High School in 2013. Marine Sgt. Dietrich Schmieman, 26, grew up in Richland.
Schaaff was based out of Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, home of a Marine Aerial Refueling and Transport Squadron.
His job included loading ordinance onto planes.
Schaaff and his wife, Sarah Beth Schaff, have a 1-year-old daughter, with a second daughter due in November. The family declined comment through friends.
Tono Sablan went to high school with Schaaff, graduating a year behind him. He said he and Schaaff were in a leadership class.
“At his heart, he was just a fun, goofy guy,” Sablan said. “Not a day went by without him smiling.”
Schaaff was a member of an Air Force Junior ROTC unit that competed in a national drill competition.
“There was not a question he was joining the Marines,” Sablan said. “That was rock-solid. The type of dedication that he had, if he was committed to something, he was going to go all the way.”
Schmieman joined the Marine Corps at 19 with an ambition to serve in special operations, his father said.
He enlisted after completing an academic program that allows students to earn a college associate's degree while they finish high school, said his father, Eric Schmieman.
“The most common comments his friends made about him were that he helped them, and he inspired them to live life to the fullest,” Eric Schmieman told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “He certainly did that himself.”
He said his son served in a reconnaissance unit before joining the elite Raider command stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, about two years ago
The Rev. Corey Smith of Richland Lutheran Church, who was Dietrich Schmieman’s youth pastor from sixth grade until he enlisted, said the young man joined the Marines out of a desire to serve others.
“That's the kind of heart he had,” he said in a phone interview. “He loved to help people.”
Six of the Marines and the sailor were from an elite Marine Raider battalion at Camp Lejeune. Nine were based out of Stewart Air National Guard Base.
The Marine Corps on Friday identified the other victims as Maj. Caine Michael Goyette, Capt. Sean E. Elliott, Gunnery Sgt. Mark. A. Hopkins, Gunnery Sgt. Brendan C. Johnson, Staff Sgt. Robert H. Cox, Staff Sgt. William Kundrat, Sgt. Chad Jenson, Sgt. Julian M. Kevianne, Sgt. Talon Leach, Sgt. Owen Lennon, HM2 Ryan Lohrey, Sgt. Joseph Murray, Sgt. Joshua M. Snowden and Cpl. Daniel Baldassare.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said the final set of remains was recovered Thursday from a farm field where the KC-130 crashed Monday.
Remains were flown Thursday to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where military officials say they will be processed by Air Force mortuary personnel and then released to their families.
Comments