Ceremony to mark 25 years since 203rd RED HORSE crash

The Virginia Air National Guard’s 203rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers Squadron, 192nd Wing, will conduct a memorial ceremony March 3, 2026, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to recognize the 25th anniversary of a plane crash which claimed the lives of 18 VaANG Airmen and three Florida Army National Guard aviators.

Eighteen members of the 203rd lost their lives when the C-23 Sherpa they were flying in crashed in a cotton field near Unadilla, Georgia, March 3, 2001. The 203rd
Airmen were returning home after completing a two-week military construction project at Hurlburt Field, Florida. It was the largest loss of life in the Virginia National Guard since World War II.

“On March 3, 2026, we hold our public tradition wherein we gather with family, friends, and the broader community to remember the 18 Airmen and three Soldiers we lost 25 years ago,” said Lt. Col. Carlos R. Nixon, commander of the 203rd RED HORSE. “A quarter‑century is long enough that some people in the unit today weren’t even born when the crash happened, yet the impact still shapes the identity of the 203rd.”

The 203rd RED HORSE provides a highly-mobile civil engineering response force to support contingency operations worldwide.

Read more: https://va.ng.mil/Portals/55/Documents/Newsletters/VaGuard_Newsletter_2026_Issue2.pdf