Memorial fund set up for Black Hawk crash victims
A fund has been set up in memory of the three Minnesota National Guard crew members killed in a helicopter crash last week.
The nonprofit Central Minnesota Warrior to Citizen partnered with Deerwood Bank to set up the fund for the families of the three Minnesota soldiers: 30-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles Nord of Perham, 28-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 2 James Rogers Jr. of Winsted, and 28-year-old Sgt. Kort Plantenberg of Avon.
All three soldiers were assigned to the St. Cloud-based Company C, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion. Nord and Rogers were pilots; Plantenberg was a mechanic on track to attend flight school. All three had returned home last May from a nine-month deployment to Kuwait, where they conducted aerial medical evacuations.
They died Dec. 5 after their Black Hawk helicopter crashed in rural Stearns County shortly after taking off from St. Cloud.
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Donations to the Beyond The Yellow Ribbon Memorial Fund can be mailed or dropped off at any Deerwood Bank location. For more information, contact 320-252-4200 or BTYRW2C@gmail.com.
A separate GoFundMe page has been set up to assist the family of Nord. He left behind his wife, Kaley, who is expecting their second child, and a 2-year-old daughter.
The crew was conducting a routine maintenance test flight when the helicopter went down. Investigators are still trying to figure out what happened.
A funeral mass for Plantenberg is scheduled for Thursday at St. John's Abbey Church in Collegeville. Services for Rogers and Nord are planned for Sunday and Monday.