Services are scheduled in Hopkinsville and on Fort Campbell Thursday to remember the 248 soldiers and eight crew members killed in a plane crash near Gander, Newfoundland on their way home from a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula in 1985.
This will be the 34th wreath laying ceremony held in Hopkinsville and it will take place at the Gander Memorial at the corner of US 41A and the Pennyrile Parkway at 1 p.m. Parking will be limited.
There will be a memorial service at 10 a.m. at the newly relocated Gander Memorial on Fort Campbell near Fort Campbell’s Brig. Gen. Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum. The memorial consists of two monuments and 256 Canadian sugar maple trees. The original memorial, also on Fort Campbell, was relocated this year after the trees’ root systems began growing together, raising concerns about the long-term future of the memorial.
Major Kevin Andersen says, “The Gander tragedy remains the single largest loss of life in the history of this storied division. The Fort Campbell community will continue to come together each year on this day to honor and remember the sacrifice of these Soldiers, their Families and their comrades in arms.”