About 1,200 sailors in dress blue uniforms packed an auditorium to remember three of their colleagues who died after their helicopter crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.
A memorial ceremony was held at Naval Station Norfolk on Friday, where friends, family and co-workers laughed and cried as personal stories about the men were told.
Five crew members were aboard the MH-53E Sea Dragon when it crashed Jan. 8 about 18 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach during a training mission. Twenty-five-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Collins, a pilot from Truckee, Calif., and 29-year-old crewman Lt. Wesley Van Dorn of Greensboro, N.C., died after being taken to a hospital. The remains of Lt. Sean Christopher Snyder, a pilot from Santee, Calif., were recovered on Tuesday.
The crash is under investigation.
