Coast Guard honors
3 killed in
’82 copter crash

The Guard members died 20 years
ago during a rescue effort

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By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com

Twenty years ago today, three Coast Guard members flew in a helicopter to assist a floundering 74-foot fishing vessel off Kahului.

The HH-52A "Sea Guard" amphibious helicopter flew into a ridgetop on Molokai in high winds and poor visibility, killing the three.

It was the first tragedy in Hawaii to involve Coast Guard members during a rescue mission.

The three -- Lt. Cmdr. Horton "Buzz" W. Johnson, Lt. Colleen A. Cain and Petty Officer 2nd class David L. Thompson -- were honored this morning by officials of the Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point.

There was a wreath-laying at the air station and the flag was lowered to half-mast to acknowledge the three.

Following the ceremony, a helicopter was to drop three lei over the crash site in Wailau Valley.

California native Johnson, 33, was a 1970 Coast Guard Academy graduate and received a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1976 for rescuing a man whose plane had crashed into a mountainside.

Rear Adm. Ralph D. Utley, commander of the 14th Coast Guard and a friend if Johnson's, said, "The aviation community was shocked and humbled to realize that something like this could happen to one of our best pilots."

Cain, 29, of Burlington, Iowa, was the first female helicopter pilot in the Coast Guard and the first woman Coast Guard pilot killed during a rescue effort. She was a real pioneer, Utley said.

In February 1980, Cain was awarded the Coast Guard Commendation Medal for saving the life of a 3-year-old boy who stopped breathing after he was in a boating accident in Kahana Bay.

Thompson, 23, of Sequim, Wash., was an aviation machinist mate 2nd class.

Thompson had been recently married when the crash occurred.