Lora Hobbs was 16 years old when her brother, Army Specialist Mark W. Ferguson, died on Dec. 12, 1985, at Gander, Newfoundland.
Just three years older than his sister, Ferguson was one soldier among 248 who died when their chartered aircraft crashed in a forest moments after taking off from the Gander airfield. Anticipating reunions with their families at Christmas, the soldiers were returning home from a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula.
More years than not since then, Hobbs has been present for the annual memorial services at Fort Campbell and Hopkinsville to honor the members of the 502nd Infantry Regiment who didn’t make it home. She drove again this week from her home in Kingsport, Tennessee, and stood Tuesday among several dozen people she doesn’t know that turned out for the Hopkinsville service at Gander Memorial Park.
Hobbs’ voice cracked when she explained why she keeps returning to Hopkinsville.
“I just don’t want him to be forgotten,” she said.
The service included brief remarks by Col. James C. Stultz, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Campbell, who noted the importance of sharing stories of the soldiers who died at Gander.
A color guard stood at the soldier’s statue in the memorial park as Christian County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam and Hopkinsville Mayor James R. Knight Jr. placed a wreath in front of the stone markers that bear the names of the soldiers and crew members who died in the Gander crash. Seven members of the 2nd Brigade fired a 21-gun salute. A bugler for the 101st Airborne Division played taps.
This was the first year Hobbs couldn’t attend the service with one of her parents. Her mother, Margaret Ferguson, died last year, and her father, Giles W. “Buddy” Ferguson, died in 2021. Mark Ferguson was her only sibling.
“It’s just me now,” she said.
Hobbs said her brother joined the Army in June 1984, right after he finished high school. After basic training at Fort Banning in Georgia, he was sent to Fort Campbell.
“He loved the military. He would have made a career of it,” said Hobbs.
Although they had typical sibling clashes growing up, Hobbs said she and her brother became much closer when he left for the Army. They wrote letters back and forth. In one letter he sent from the Sinai, Ferguson taped a dab of sand on the paper for his sister.
In two years, for the 40th anniversary of the crash, Hobbs is considering a trip to Gander, Newfoundland. She wants to see the memorial there and meet the people who have not forgotten the soldiers from Fort Campbell.
This story was originally published by the Hoptown Chronicle.
