TAMPA, Fla. - Thirty-three years after a tragic airplane crash in Washington, D.C., took the lives of 78 people, the Florida Air National Guard recognized three of the victims for helping create a lasting impact on its Citizen-Airmen.
On Jan. 13, the 290th Joint Communications Support Squadron (JCSS) placed a brick bearing the names of Soldiers Maj. Ralph Herman, Sgt. Maj. James Dixon, and Lt. Col. George Mattar in its newly established memorial brick garden in front of its headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base. This first brick will in the future "be surrounded by bricks of other significant people who have contributed to the 290th's mission," according to 290th JCSS Lt. Col. Matthew Giles.
Giles explained that Herman, Dixon and Mattar were all senior members of the Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE) based at MacDill, and in January 1982 they had been visiting the Pentagon as part of a series of meetings to help create the 290th JCSS. Their goal was to establish the 290th at MacDill as an Air National Guard unit capable of assisting the active-duty JCSE with its communications mission.
Giles added that as part of their trip to discuss Air National Guard augmentation at the JCSE, the three Soldiers met with Maj. Robert Smith at the Pentagon; Smith would later become the first commander of the Florida Air National Guard's 290th JCSS.
On Jan. 13, 1982, the Soldiers were leaving Washington National Airport on Air Florida Flight 90 on a return flight to Florida when the accident occurred. According to reports Flight 90 took off in wintry weather conditions and crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River just after 4 p.m. Seventy-four people on board were killed, and four motorists were killed on the bridge. Ice on the wings was blamed as the cause of the disaster.
Florida's Assistant Adjutant General for Air Brig. Gen. James Eifert, who placed the brick during the morning ceremony with JCSE Commander Col. Kirby Watson, explained the importance of remembering the contributions of Herman, Dixon and Mattar to the creation one of the Florida Air National Guard's most dynamic units.
"They saw the value of this mission before it was even there," Eifert said. "They were visionaries. As we were evolving (as an Air National Guard) they recognized that this joint force had a place in the Guard and reserve."
The 290th Joint Combat Communications Squadron was formally activated and designated a unit of the Florida Air National Guard two years after the Flight 90 crash. Today the JCSS provides globally deployable communications support to units and agencies throughout the world in support of U.S. national security objectives.