Mississippi to honor Marine plane crash that killed 16

Published 3:17 pm Saturday, July 14, 2018

ITTA BENA, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi and U.S. Marine Corps officials are helping dedicate a monument to a plane crash that killed 15 Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman last year.

The military transport plane, flown by a New York-based Marine Reserve unit, was carrying special forces Marines from North Carolina to California for training when it crashed July 10, 2017.

More than 200 relatives and friends of the 16 crash victims are expected to gather Saturday for ceremonies at Mississippi Valley State University and the nearby memorial.

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From there, a group of about 30 people will set off on a 900-mile (1,450-kilometer) relay to Marine Corps Special Operations Command at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Saturday’s event will be the first time that many relatives visit the crash site and that members of all families gather.