KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak members with the Alaska Patrol HH-65 Dolphin helicopter shop remember fallen Coast Guardsmen by cleaning a memorial site at Pyramid Mountain June 30, 2011. Access to the site, off Anton Larsen Bay Road, was also improved. PA3 Jonathan Lally photo
On the 16th anniversary of a fatal plane crash along Anton Larsen Bay Road, members of Air Station Kodiak’s Alaska Patrol crew and their families spent the day sprucing up a memorial to those who were lost.
Killed in the June 30, 1995, crash were civilian pilot Christopher Canfield, Chief Petty Officer Douglas Cooper, Petty Officer First Class Danny Jackson and Petty Officer Second Class Rodney Parsons. The men, all in their 30s, were returning to Kodiak after sportfishing and rafting near Karluk. The four white crosses that mark the crash site can easily be seen across a gully from the road to Antone Larsen Bay.
Brian Hansz is an aviation maintenance chief with the Alaska Patrol at the air station, where the HH-65 Dolphin helicopters are based. He said the three Coast Guardsmen who were killed worked in the same shop, and every year crewmen there go up to the memorial site to maintain it
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— (Memorial 1 37 sec "We go in at least … cleaned up and not overgrown.")
Hansz said the crew decided to do extra work this year on the trail to the memorial site, and built steps down from the road. And, with the help of Andy Schroeder of Island Trails Network, they laid down some trail-stabilizing matting.
— (Memorial 2 53 sec "We took that and cut it … gravel contractor, Brechan.")
The crosses, made of metal, were also cleaned of rust and repainted, and the memorial plaque was also cleaned up.
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