Camp Lejeune Marines, community react to Army helicopter crash

JACKSONVILLE, NC (WWAY) — As crews search for any survivors after an Army helicopter crashed off Florida’s coast, Marines at Camp Lejeune are speaking out about the incident.

Community members placed flowers at Camp Lejeune’s front gate Wednesday afternoon, and one Marine said he is hugging his friends and family a little tighter.

“Life is very precious,” Marine Corps SSgt. Loobens Alphonse said.

Alphonse took a moment of silence for the seven Marines based at Camp Lejeune and the four soldiers from a Louisiana National Guard unit who were on the helicopter that crashed during a training exercise in Florida Tuesday night.

“Those families did not get the opportunity to see their loved ones come home and it was all in the name of protecting mother America,” Alphonse said.

So Alphonse took his opportunity to appreciate their duty and his.

“I’m glad to be a United States Marine,” Alphonse said. “I do it for my country.”

He also took the opportunity to appreciate his country’s support as the wife of a veteran, Isabel Collette, placed flowers at Camp Lejeune’s front gate.

“It’s just a little token,” Collette said.

She says it’s a token of appreciation for their duty and a token of prayer for their families.

“I can only imagine how the families are feeling right now,” Collette said. “You know getting that phone call, that visit to your door, and not knowing and waiting for answers.”

Collete wants them to know how she is feeling.

“It’s important that somebody is thinking about them,” Collette said.

It’s a little token of support that Alphonse says keeps all Marines fighting.

“It makes what we do worth more,” Alphonse said. “Just to see the community come out and recognize what we do really means a lot.”

Alphonse says it’s a moment of silence for the Marines, but a moment of appreciation for the ones that mean to most to him.

“It makes you appreciate the fact that you are able to go home and see your loved ones,” Alphonse said. “I’m on my way home right now and I have friends and family members waiting for me, so I’m excited to get home and give them a big hug.”

The USO North Carolina Jacksonville Center says they are on standby to help as they are needed.