A mourner pays his final respects at a memorial service for Capt. Kevin M. Norman and CW3 David W. Snow, who were killed in 2003 when their C-12 Huron crashed near Camp Humphreys. (Joseph Giordono / S&S)
A mourner pays his final respects at a memorial service for Capt. Kevin M. Norman and CW3 David W. Snow, who were killed in 2003 when their C-12 Huron crashed near Camp Humphreys. (Joseph Giordono / S&S)
Colleagues of Capt. Kevin M. Norman and CW3 David W. Snow pay their final respects at a memorial service for the pilots, who were killed in a 2003 crash near Camp Humphreys, South Korea. (Joseph Giordono / S&S)
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Nearly one year ago, Army Capt. Kevin M. Norman and Chief Warrant Officer David W. Snow took to the skies of South Korea for another routine day in a job they both loved.
Norman and Snow, members of the 52nd Aviation Regiment, 17th Aviation Brigade, piloted their Army C-12 Huron airplane on a routine training flight in the skies near Camp Humphreys on Aug. 12. It was a clear day, and the flight proceeded as planned.
But around 2:30 p.m., witnesses on the ground would later say, the plane was in flames, and would soon crash into a small field next to a populated area.
Both Norman, 30, and Snow, 37, were killed in the crash.
This week, their former unit will mark the one-year anniversary of the crash, holding a pair of memorial events at both the crash site and the unit headquarters.
Expected to be in attendance are family members from the United States, including Norman’s wife, Brandi, and Snow’s wife, Amy, and daughters Emily and Olivia.
On Aug. 11, family members and unit representatives will travel to the crash site and hold a service; a second service, at K-16 Air Base where the units are based, will be held the next day.
The memorial ceremonies will be a chance to honor the pilots with their families in attendance, said Col. David Abramowitz, brigade commander. A Yongsan Garrison memorial was held days after the crash, but neither families attended.
At that service, the pilots were eulogized as the “very essence of duty, honor and country.”
According to witnesses on the ground, interviewed hours after the crash, the pilots apparently steered their stricken craft away from a populated area and into the field.
“I’m thankful for those pilots, as I feel they sacrificed themselves to protect the residential area,” Lee Chae-Soo, the field’s owner, told Stars and Stripes at the time. “Even if they hit my field, they didn’t hit my house.”
Snow, from Mount Airy, N.C., was serving his third tour in South Korea.
Norman, from Sonoma Valley, Calif., met his wife Capt. Brandi Norman at West Point.
