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Memorial service for victims of copter crash scheduled for Wednesday at Kadena

By Carlos Bongioanni, Okinawa bureauBy David Allen, Okinawa bureau chief
Pacific edition, Tuesday, February 26, 2002

KADENA AIR BASE — Base officials say they are expecting about 1,000 people to attend a memorial service Wednesday to honor two fallen comrades.

Master Sgt. William McDaniel and Staff Sgt. Juan Ridout died Friday when their MH-47E Chinook helicopter plunged into the sea about 10 miles south of Negros Island in the Philippines. Eight soldiers from a helicopter unit based in Taegu, South Korea, also perished in the crash. A separate memorial service was to be held in Taegu on Tuesday.

McDaniel and Ridout were Air Force special operations pararescuemen assigned to the 320th Special Tactics Squadron of Kadena’s 353rd Special Operations Group.

As pararescuemen, they were part of Okinawa’s close-knit brotherhood of special operations forces. Pararescuemen train to rescue people at sea and those shot down or trapped behind enemy lines. Many Army Special Forces from Torii Station’s 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, as well as members of Kadena’s 33rd Rescue Squadron which also has pararescuemen, are expected to attend the Wednesday memorial, officials said.

The memorial will be held at 1 p.m. in the Commando West Hangar.

McDaniel is survived by his wife, Debbie, who is pregnant, and a 2-year-old child. McDaniel’s family was notified of his death at their off-base residence in Okinawa on Friday.

Ridout was a single airman who lived in a dormitory on base. A friend who answered Ridout’s dormitory room telephone Saturday said friends and associates were consoling each other and Ridout’s girlfriend to cope with the death.