COVERING WHIDBEY ISLAND’S NAVAL AIR STATION COMMUNITY
Whidbey
VOLUME 1, NO. 45 | 03 FEBRUARY 2012
www.whidbeycrosswind.com Navy, Nimitz remember fleet’s first female handler By MC RENEE CANDELARIO USS Nimitz Public Affairs
BREMERTON (NNS) — The Navy remembered the fleet’s first female aircraft handling officer during a ceremony in Bremerton Jan. 27. More than 2,000 family members, friends, and shipmates assembled aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) to pay respect to Lt. Cmdr. Regina Mills, who was struck and killed by a
Lt. Cmdr Regina Mills
SEE MILLS | PAGE 2
THIS EDITION VFW honors young essay winners ..................pg. 2 (Top) Members of Whatcom county law enforcement and Bellingham police departments pay their respects to Marine Capt. Dan Bartle on Jan. 28. Bartle was one of six Marines killed in Afghanistan Jan. 19. (Above, left) A Marine detachment prepares to carry Marine Capt. Dan Bartle’s casket into Westford Funeral Home in Bellingham. (Above, right) Observers silently pay their respects to Capt. Bartle outside the Bellingham funeral home. PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVID HAMMONS
Marine’s sacrifice honored By MELANIE HAMMONS Whidbey Crosswind
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quiet crowd numbering in the hundreds, many holding American flags, lined a fourmile route in Bellingham Saturday to honor a fallen Marine. U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Daniel Bartle, 27, from Ferndale, was killed in a helicopter crash Jan. 19 in Helmand province, Afghanistan. His remains were returned home Jan. 28 in a processional from the airport to the funeral home. Many of those gathered along the route said though they never knew Bartle personally, their silent tribute spoke volumes.
Lois Miles of Bellingham was among the hundreds lining the route. The daughter of a Navy pilot and mother of an Air Force pilot, Miles felt a special kinship to Bartle, whom she’d never met. She made sure to bring Capt. Daniel both her American flag Bartle and US Marine Corps flag. “I didn’t know him or his family,” said Miles, wiping tears from her eyes. “I just really feel for his family members right now and I pray for God’s comfort for them, and to watch over them.”
As Miles struggled to display the two full-size flags, she said a stranger to her, a woman only known as Terri, helped her balance the flags for the duration of the processional. Although the temperatures ranged from the mid-to-upper 30’s, that did not seem to impact those who waited respectfully on the streets of the processional route. Everson resident Erika Johnson and her children, 2-year-old Jeremiah, and 4-year-old Lilliana, outfitted in ski clothes against the cold, also waited patiently on the street corner adjacent to Westford funeral home in Bellingham.
SEE MARINE | PAGE 5
PBY members dream of the future .....................pg. 2 Pets’ Sake: The high cost of pet care .................pg. 4 What’s playing at the Skywarrior? ............pg. 5
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